Formally Leaving the Catholic Church

Cutting all ties to the Roman Catholic Church.

I'm embarking on a quest. Scientologists would call it routing out, and I suppose that term is useful here in the Catholic context too. I am formally renouncing the Catholic Church. You may be thinking to yourself, Max, you haven't been in Roman Catholic Church in at least twenty years, you are an atheist, and so, as a right cross follows a jab, you are not a Roman Catholic now.

Too right, constant reader, too right. However, and crucially, the Roman Catholic Church still counts me as one of their flock, and not just privately. I form one unit of Catholicism, according to them, in the numbers apologists like to throw around when they are being talking heads attempting to influence public opinion. The main way in which such numbers are used as an apologetics tool is to justify the plea for respecting the opinions, and doctrines of their institution. It is alleged by the Church that nearly a billion people are Catholic. I'm not sure how valid those numbers are (though I suspect they are inflated) but I certainly don't want to be used to artificially given them a bump of even one.

Its strange that, given my more than thirty year absence, from the Church that they would continue to use me in the tabulation of their numbers. For years I thought that since I had stopped going, they would stop counting me as a member of their congregations. In the grand history of immorality that is the Roman Catholic Church this is most likely at tiny deception. No matter,  knowing this is how they do things I feel I must see myself removed from their rolls. If you have let your Catholic faith go, no longer attend, and plan never to attend again, I would urge you to consider this course of action. Its such an immoral organization why let your name even be minutely associated with it?

Anyway, for how ever long this process takes I will keep Brunch readers updated. I've sent my first email inquiry today, and hope to hear back from someone with a funny collar, or crazy hat soon.