ages ago we talked about being de-batised and weather its possible in your Christian churches either catholic or protestant. remember it was a big ramble chat and decided from church view was you can never be de-batised.

Their is however an in between point were you can ask to be removed as an active member of that church. perhaps for some of reasons below.

--to join another church
--disagreement or disapprove with the churches currrent behaviour
--disagreement with churches past behaviours
--to un-enrole your name from the baptisimale register therefore showing the true numbers of people trulie practising.
--a protest agenst church teachings.
--protest agenst churches treatment of certine groups (why would anyone want to belong to something that doesn't want them)

certainly that list is not exosted.

so it looks like this has been done and has been passed as long ago as 2006. That their is a web sight that can deal with appro0priate documentation. It can also point you in direction of dealing with considerations of removal from catholic register, like were to be buried, married, kids christened etc.

if intrested or just wanna talk about it in a new way then its the first link on the web page that opens. Its called "count me out" happy reading and deciding

http://www.countmeout.ie/

One does not even have to ask to be removed from the Catholic Church: one can merely be schismatic, apostate or heretical. It pre-dates 2006 and there are various non-Catholic communities of faith which currently exist and attest to earlier acts of separation from the Catholic Church. So, the concept of the movement for debaptism is nothing new.

The Pontifical Council on Actus Formalis Defectionis Ab Ecclesia Catholica (Formal Act of Defections from the Catholic Church):

1. For the abandonment of the Catholic Church to be validly configured as a true actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia so that the exceptions foreseen in the previously mentioned canons would apply, it is necessary that there concretely be:

a) the internal decision to leave the Catholic Church;
b) the realization and external manifestation of that decision; and
c) the reception of that decision by the competent ecclesiastical authority.

2. The substance of the act of the will must be the rupture of those bonds of communion – faith, sacraments, and pastoral governance – that permit the Faithful to receive the life of grace within the Church. This means that the formal act of defection must have more than a juridical-administrative character (the removal of one’s name from a Church membership registry maintained by the government in order to produce certain civil consequences), but be configured as a true separation from the constitutive elements of the life of the Church: it supposes, therefore, an act of apostasy, heresy or schism.

3. The juridical-administrative act of abandoning the Church does not per se constitute a formal act of defection as understood in the Code, given that there could still be the will to remain in the communion of the faith.

On the other hand, heresy (whether formal or material), schism and apostasy do not in themselves constitute a formal act of defection if they are not externally concretized and manifested to the ecclesiastical authority in the required manner.

4. The defection must be a valid juridical act, placed by a person who is canonically capable and in conformity with the canonical norms that regulate such matters (cfr. cann.124-126). Such an act must be taken personally, consciously and freely.

5. It is required, moreover, that the act be manifested by the interested party in written form, before the competent authority of the Catholic Church: the Ordinary or proper pastor, who is uniquely qualified to make the judgment concerning the existence or non-existence of the act of the will as described above in n. 2.

Consequently, only the convergence of the two elements – the theological content of the interior act and its manifestation in the manner defined above – constitutes the actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia catholica, with the corresponding canonical penalties (cfr. can. 1364, § 1).

6. In such cases, the competent ecclesiastical authority mentioned above is to provide that this act be noted in the baptismal registry (cfr. can. 535, § 2) with explicit mention of the occurrence of a “defectio ab Ecclesia catholica actu formali”.

7. It remains clear, in any event, that the sacramental bond of belonging to the Body of Christ that is the Church, conferred by the baptismal character, is an ontological and permanent bond which is not lost by reason of any act or fact of defection.

In respect of Clause 7. As much as the Catholic Church would extend to assist with Pontifical guidelines, even with severance from it by members of its congregation (by benefit of the doctrine on Free Will), there are dogmas which the Catholic Church has no authority to undo. The theological argument on baptism has been discussed in a related topic in the past.

Thanks for the information, Lola. Fascinating stuff.

I'm no expert in Canon law by any stretch. I just figured God made each of us with free will and when we get before Him, we will be judged upon the decisions we have made during our lifetime.

For a few years of my 35 year nursing career,I worked in Maternity, and I baptized any and all babies in our nursery, since newborns are fragile and sometimes suddenly not able to sustain life. and I wanted to do something special as my gift to them during their first few days on earth.

If I helped give them an extra spiritual leg up during their time here, well, I was glad to help.

If they later found other paths to add to their life's journey, I'm glad for whatever independent spiritual decisions they made or are still making.

thanks lola for you input though i expect it take me longer to read and understand what you written than what it took you wto write it and we did chat about the de-baptising or the non baptising in the last thread on this.
Thats why this same type of thing but then again a diff vain for diff reasons and diff outcome's.

josie while you were working as a nurse yu baptised any and all kids?

how can you do this? are you talking in an informale way or do you belong to a church and hold a position in a church that can do this for kids?

can ya say more about it all?

Lola, thanks for your indepth answer.

As a Presbyterian, you can be removed from the rolls of a church, but we also believe that Baptism cannot be reversed - stating it simply.

celtic, I so appreciate your questions. They are always so thoughtful.