Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 03/05/2009 5:37:10 AM PST by NYer
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - In an effort to reduce the church's political influence, Argentine atheists and feminists are spearheading a drive to get people who were baptized Roman Catholic but disagree with the church's politics to formally renounce their faith.
The "Not in my Name" Internet campaign, also called Collective Apostasy, encourages people who are Catholic in name only to write to the bishops where they were baptized to officially register that they have left the church.
Latin America is home to about half of the world's Roman Catholics but many people who were baptized Catholic do not practice the religion.
"The church counts all those who've been baptized as Catholic and lobbies for legislation based on that number, so we're trying to convey the importance of people expressing that they no longer belong to the church," said campaigner Ariel Bellino, a member of an atheist group and a former Catholic.
Some 200 people signed onto the campaign on Monday, when it was first launched, and another 500 people signed up on Tuesday at www.apostasiacolectiva.org, Bellino said.
He said a similar drive was waged in Spain, where leftist movements have a historical anti-clerical streak, and in Chile. id="midArticle_6">
Apostasy in the Roman Catholic Church is defined as the total and obstinate repudiation of the faith.
More than three-quarters of Argentina's 40 million residents define themselves as Catholic, according to a survey done by state researchers last year. But of that group, only about 20 percent say they regularly attend mass.
The country's relatively liberal social mores clash with Catholic doctrine on birth control, abstinence before marriage and homosexuality. The capital, Buenos Aires, was the first Latin American city to allow gay civil unions, back in 2003.
A constitutional requirement that presidents be Catholic was stripped out of the country's charter in the mid-1990s.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“Argentine atheists and feminists are spearheading a drive to get people who were baptized Roman Catholic but disagree with the church’s politics to formally renounce their faith.”
Based on the Church’s position and actions on illegal immigration, if I were Catholic, I would do the same. In fact, about a year ago I considered joining the Church. Not any more.
Thank you for sharing that information. I joined 4 years ago and believe it was the best decision I have ever made.
My oldest son joined last year. So far, he’s very pleased.
You don’t “join” the church. You’re either called or you’re not.
Anyway, this'll just make room for all the converts.
Apostacy Online brought to you by Rueters!
Well, for those of us coming from a Protestant background, sometimes we don’t use the correct terms. Please be a little charitable with this new Catholic, as I don’t have a lifetime of Catholic culture and education behind me.
Well, as it goes in my neck of the woods, I don’t know anyone who’s ever joined without being called, but then others, like me, have been called and chose not to join.
You’d jeopardize your eternal salvation over a temporal matter?
Neither do the people born and raised since the Second Vatican Council, so you're not alone.
I also manage to position myself so that I do not have to hold hands during the Lord's Prayer, and also avoid that raising hands in the air thing.
Can't do much about the music, though. We are still into the 1970's hymns, which are just awful. I come home after mass and put on CD's. There is a Church about half an hour away with the Latin Mass, which I have not attended since I was at a funeral mass when I was a very little girl. I am intending to go there one Sunday during Lent.
Are you kidding? How shallow to base your judgment on a merely prudential issue that some social justice types in the Church have adopted as their own issue. How about the doctine of the faith? How about Scripture and Tradition? How about the teaching office of the Church? How about the sacraments? I guess they count for nothing?
Please. They’d be doing us a favor in the long run. Those who do the most damage to the Church’s reputation are the nominal Catholics.
Obtain a traditional rite missal to guide you through the choreography of the altar and provide Latin and English on opposing pages. Then, try the traditional Mass and you may well love it enough to travel that half hour each way every Sunday. We travel that far each week for our traditional Mass. There is also the sense that those in attendance are joined together in a special way with all of those who attend(ed) the traditional Mass around the world and throughout the ages of the Church.
Actually sacred music composed by Mozart and by Palestrina and a host of others will prove to be an utterly superior experience to having "On Eagles' Wings" or other Kumbaya stuff imposed each week.
May God continue to bless you and yours at this solemn and holy time of the year.
“You’d jeopardize your eternal salvation over a temporal matter?”
Who said anything about jeopardizing my eternal salvation?
The grace obtained from the sacraments assist your salvation. Just because the bishops are tone-deaf when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration (I happen to disagree with them myself), you want to deny yourself access to them?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.