# Can I apply to be excommunicated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381 "2003-01-28T01:19:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mr\_scroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@mr\_scroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_scroph)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381/1 "2003-01-28T01:19:54Z")
I was baptised as a Roman Catholic, but i’ve been an atheist for at least the last 12 years or so. Normally, if I was a member of an organisation I didn’t want to be part of any more I’d be able to leave but this doesn’t seem to be the case with religions. So - could I send a letter to the Pope asking him to excommunicate me? If not, what would I have to do to be forcibly excommunicated? I’m only asking out of curiosity as having “Roman Catholic” on my birth certificate doesn’t affect my life one bit (and, as far as I’m aware, never will), but if it really bothered me is there anything I would be able to do about it? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381/2 "2003-01-28T01:22:42Z")
You could try to start a schism. That should get you booted out. That’s a lot of work. ---
**Author:** ![KeithT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@KeithT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithT)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381/3 "2003-01-28T01:36:47Z")
The master has spoken on this subject. [“Strictly speaking, excommunication does not render you a non-Catholic. It merely means you’re a Catholic who’s been damned to hell.”](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_242.html) ---
**Author:** ![mr\_scroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@mr\_scroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_scroph)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381/4 "2003-01-28T01:42:30Z")
Thanks KeithT - I’ve obviously committed the sin of posting-before-searching-the-archive. I’ll be sure to say a few decades of the rosary as penance! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381/5 "2003-01-28T03:19:21Z")
- mr\_scroph\* I’m sure you’re not the only one it’s occurred to. I was baptised in a Methodist church as a child. When I became a lifelong atheist in my early teens, I wondered if there were any way I could be formally ‘unbaptised’, as I resented (and still resent) this decision made on my behalf. I’m sure it can’t be countermanded, but if you felt strongly about making such a symbolic move, you could talk to a Humanist officiant. They may have a ceremony, or be able to come up with one, for renouncing all religious belief. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381/6 "2003-01-28T03:33:59Z")
A ceremony for renouncing all religious belief? Good God, that is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a while. Just stop going to church/Calling yourself a member of whatever religion, and Poof! You are no longer effectively in said organization. No need to get all religious about it, looking up special ceremonies and whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-apply-to-be-excommunicated/151381/7 "2003-01-28T03:52:59Z")
_Brutus_ Logically, yes, I agree; but these things have a strong symbolism that often links into various unresolved parental issues about important decisions made without our consent. And it’s on the edge of a considerably less trivial area of religions whose adherents chop bits off you. A small websearch found this - [Can I un-baptise myself?](http://www.idiotikon.de/uctaa/med19.html) - from _The Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic_. It’s a pleasantly pragmatic answer: that you are not bound by a contract in which you were not a consenting and informed participant.