There’s a new trend sweeping across Europe – people requesting to be de-baptized because they no longer want to be affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Is this even possible?
For those who have never heard of it, de-baptism is a movement by those who want to have their name removed from baptismal records. People choose to do this for a variety of reasons but mostly because they want to change their religion or have become disillusioned with the Church and no longer wish to be associated with it or to be expected to adhere to its moral teachings. Same-sex marriage, LGBTQ rights, and cohabitation appear to be the main motivators for people wishing to be freed from the Catholic Church and teachings which they consider to be out-of-touch with modern society.
With the help of organizations such as Italy’s Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR), persons who desire de-baptism are guided through a process of writing a letter to their parish priest formally renouncing their baptism and desire to leave the Church.
Other organizations, such as the UK’s National Secular Society (NSS), claim that a person can “liberate yourself from the Original Mumbo-Jumbo that liberated you from the Original Sin you never had!” simply by purchasing a Certificate of Debaptism (which is printed on quality parchment paper). The certificate declares:
“I ________ having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.”
According to NSS president Terry Sanderson, “The concept of de-baptism indicates that people are not just indifferent to religion-which has been the traditional British approach-but are actually becoming hostile to it.”
However, he did admit in a 2009 interview with the BBC that the certificate was never meant to be taken seriously and suggested “displaying it in the loo.” The certificate no longer appears on the organization’s website.
Although it’s difficult to ascertain the exact number of Europeans who are choosing the option of de-baptism, the NSS claims their Certificate of Debaptism was downloaded over 100,000 times in its heyday.
According to Jimmy Akin, writing for the National Catholic Register, the Church in Belgium reports that in 2021 there were 5,237 requests from people to have their names removed from baptismal registers compared to 1,261 in 2020.
To date, there does not appear to be a significant trend to de-baptize in America; however, there is evidence of its existence on our side of the pond.
In this 2009 article, an atheist named Gary Mueller mailed his de-baptism certificate to St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Concord, Calif., and asked to be dropped from its baptismal record. He received the following answer to his request:
“While we do not remove a name/person from a Baptism register, we can note alongside your name that `you have left the Roman Catholic Church,”‘ the Rev. Richard Mangini replied in an e-mail. “I hope that God surprises you one day and lets you know that He is quite well.”
A story appearing on Nightline featured a leading American atheist named Edwin Kagin who obliged Christians who wanted to be de-baptized by using a hair dryer to symbolize drying up of the holy water that was sprinkled on their heads when they were babies. The blow dryer was labeled, “Reason and Truth.”
However, when we apply reason and truth to the de-baptism fad we quickly discover that the whole idea is a spiritually dangerous scam. Baptism cannot be “erased” from the soul either by crossing a name out of a baptismal register or trying to blow it away with a hair dryer.
As Jeannine Marino, program specialist for evangelization & catechesis at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, explained to the Christian Post, “If the request to be ‘de-baptized’ is meant to have one’s name removed from the baptismal records, this would not be allowed since the baptismal record is a record of historical facts. Catholic canon law prohibits records from being substantially altered or deleted.”
But baptism is about a lot more than just an entry in a register. The Church believes that reception of this sacrament leaves a permanent mark on the soul.
“From the Church’s perspective, it is impossible to ‘un-baptize’ or ‘de-baptize’ someone because we believe that baptism permanently seals the person to Christ and the Church,” said Marino. “People can stop participating in the Church, but we believe the grace of the sacrament has marked them forever.”
The Rev Daniele Mombelli, vice chancellor of the Diocese of Brescia and professor of religious sciences at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, agrees that it’s not possible to erase the sacrament “because it’s a fact that historically happened, and was therefore registered. What the procedure [of debaptism] does is formalize the person’s abandonment of the church.”
He went on to explain that those who go through the process of debaptism have committed the “crime of apostasy” for which there are serious consequences.
“There’s a substantial difference between the sin of apostasy and the crime of apostasy. An atheist commits the sin because it’s an internal decision, and they can be forgiven if they repent. An apostate, instead, manifests their will to formally abandon the church externally, so they face legal consequences for their decision.”
These consequences are serious, he said. “An apostate immediately faces excommunication from the church, without need of a trial. This means that the person is excluded from the sacraments, may not become a godparent, and will be deprived of a Catholic funeral.”
This is notwithstanding the most serious consequence of all – the loss of eternal life.
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