EXCOMMUNICATION...from the

Factual Questions
1

Hey, hi…Really want to initiate a formal process of MY OWN personal EXCOMMUNICATION and removal from all lists, records, and all the stuff which the Roman Catholic church has compiled on me.

Baptised, “confirmed”, communioned, and all that…NONE of it, with my true, ADULT permission…of course, per usual church-processing dogma.

Say…Would any reader here just try to give me information, straight, without any religion-oriented judgements, and so on…? Just pretend that YOU have made this decision…and perhaps you will find it easier to help me to “get going” with it all.

Precisely what would you DO, in order to inform the “church” that you most strongly wish to be removed from its “roster”, irrevocably?

The only single item which I would REFUSE to do is to remit to the “church”, in any form, any amount of money or other compensation for their obligatory removal of me from their membership. I am prepared for them to ask for money, of course.

Brief note: I was, once, advised that there exists ONLY a single way by means of which, in these modern times, one may PROPEL the “church” to excommunicate one…and that is for one to “start another church”…Oh my, whatEVER THAT would entail. Sounds like a real pain in the rump-O, to me.

Many thanks for any specific help you might offer…Pukalani.

2

The Master has dealt with this one: How Do I Go About Getting Excommunicated?

3

You seem to ascribe a very high level of bureaucratic organization to the Catholic Church. Most likely, your diocese would be hard-pressed to find your baptismal certificates, et al., if you didn’t give them any clues to where such events took place.
It’s also not as if you get baptized in NY and you move to LA and the folks out West call up and ask for your records to be sent via messenger.

As long as you have never gone to a parish church and registered yourself as a member of that parish, I doubt anyone in the RCC gives a rat’s ass as to where you are or what your past is.

4

The records are maintained, locally, at each parish where an event occurred. There is not a diocesan (much less churchwide) registry or database. Since they are records of events, they cannot be removed, since the events happened (whether or not you consented then or approve now).

As noted, however, if you simply do not register as a member of any particular parish, you are “off the books.”

Congratulations, you have now excommunicated yourself.

5

I agree with tomndebb. “just walk away”

If you don’t feel connected to them, why should you care what they do with their “roster(s)”?

Oh, that’s a good one. Please let me know how they respond when you ask them for money.

6

Eh. Just dress up like a Cardinal, stroll into a church, and excommunicate yourself. I guarantee everyone will be very impressed.

7

Churches are regularly reviewed to determine how many active member families they have. You are probably already on the inactive list at whatever your home church was. I would just write there and explain what you want. I highly doubt that they will request any money, beyond postage, which is only fair.

8

The church where you were baptized keeps a record of that baptism, and for a compelling reason: in Catholic teaching baptism is one of the sacraments that may be administered only once, because it “leaves an indelible mark on the soul.”

It’s the practice for other important events to be recorded on your baptismal certificate, such as confirmation and marriage. This means that, should it come to pass that you don’t wish to go through the bother of an annullment, you can’t simply claim that you were never married. Before getting married in the church, you must provide a copy of your baptismal certificate; this serves as assurance to the priest marrying you that you are, in fact, free to marry. And when he marries you, he sends off notification to your baptismal church, so that fact is recorded for the future.

As far as this idea of getting rid of the records, since they were complied without your “true, ADULT permission” - forget it. They are simply historical records, as tomndebb suggests; you could as lief ask for your third grade report cards to be destroyed because they do not reflect events that involved your “true, ADULT permission.”

From the Church’s perspective, since baptism (and confirmation) ‘imprint a character’, you cannot undo the process. Even joining another religion, while being cause for excommunication, does not render you non-Catholic – it just means you’re a Catholic living in mortal sin, without access to the sacraments.

  • Rick
9

It’s not bad to have a record of your baptism because sometimes it can be used in lieu of a birth certificate in some cases.

When you’re dead and gone and your descendants start looking for you, they might find the historical record of your baptism interesting, especially if they aren’t Catholic.