Posted on 01/02/2013 10:59:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Following Pope Benedict XVI's repeated messages denouncing same-sex marriage, more Dutch Catholics are seeking ways to leave the Catholic Church. And one website is helping people to "de-baptize" themselves.
According to Reuters, the website ontdopen.nl ("de-baptize.nl") has gained significant traffic this month after the pope took the time in his Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy to condemn gay marriage.
"They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves," he said. "The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's fundamental choice where he himself is concerned."
The speech comes after the pope addressed gay marriage in his peace day message earlier this month. He said, "There is … a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union.
"Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society."
Early this year, the pontiff also said same-sex marriage threatens human dignity and the future of humanity itself.
Tom Roes set up the "de-baptism" website. He left the Catholic Church over the cover-up of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions. He told Reuters it's not possible to be "de-baptized," but said people can "unsubscribe or de-register themselves as Catholics" through his website. The website has a disclaimer stating that it is not responsible for any side effects of a life of sin such as diseases, natural disasters, or hell.
The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001. In the liberal country, about 28 percent of the population is Catholic and 18 percent is Protestant while many are not religious.
Jeannine Marino, program specialist for evangelization & catechesis at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told The Christian Post early this year that "de-baptism" is impossible "because we believe that baptism permanently seals the person to Christ and the Church."
"People can stop participating in the Church, but we believe the grace of the sacrament has marked them forever," Marino explained. "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."
Yeah, that’ll show God!
This is an article that reports on a Reuters article.
The article doesn’t mention how many people have attempted to become “un-baptized” (what ever that means). It only mentions that “more” are doing it (more than what?) and that traffic has increased at a website (which does not translate into an increase in “un-baptisms”).
File this article under “Attempting to Control Behavior by Making the False Impression that Everyone is doing it”
It's something that happens and cannot be undone.
I should be more careful with edgy religious humor this early in the New Year. I didn’t mean to offend anyone other than Dutch gay marriage supporters, but I knew as soon as I hit the Post button that I’d crossed the line. I hope he prays for me, too.
Of course Baptism cannot be undone.
Many things in a person’s life happens and cannot be undone as well.
Let’s say I was born in Venezuela. The circumstances of my birth CANNOT be undone. But I can undo my being Venezuelan by becoming the citizen of another country.
So, what about church membership? Is one considered Catholic or Anglican or Methodist, for life by virtue of Baptism (even when one no longer subscribes to the tenets of the faith?).
Don’t confuse cirumstance with ontology.
Don’t confuse circumstance with ontology.
If Ontology is the NATURE of ONE’s BEING OR EXISTENCE, are you saying that a person is BY NATURE, a Catholic because of Baptism and that he is by nature, a catholic until he dies regardless of what he believes in his heart?
This is the Truth. But sometimes the 'lost sheep' make it very hard to do so with any sincerity. Then I have to pray for myself.
All they have to do is commit a mortal sin and not go to confession. They will be separated.
"Until he dies" is irrelevant.
"Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the person baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated."Death does not remove the mark from the soul.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1272
Your answer makes the most sense to me. Thanks.
One chooses to Excommunicate himself/herself from church by ACTIVELY, VEHEMENTLY and WITHOUT REPENTANCE, opposing and denying the teachings of the church.
Well, in this case, many of our catholic politicians who support abortion, gay marriage, etc. have already separated from the church.
But then, the question comes up — what if these people PUBLICLY oppose church teachings but go to mass anyway? Should they be given Holy Communion?
RE: Death does not remove the mark from the soul.
So, how does Baptism save the soul of the unrepentant unbeliever?
My message to those pretend catholics; Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your ways out.
Those are the ones the media counts as catholics when they vote for the likes of Zero.
The answer to that question is known to God alone. Neither you nor I can know what happens to the soul of the unrepentant unbeliever at the hour of death.
RE: . Neither you nor I can know what happens to the soul of the unrepentant unbeliever at the hour of death.
I think Scripture gives us an answer to this :
“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16)
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.” (John 3:36)
“For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:17-19)
For those wanting to leave the Church:
See ya, hate t’be ya!
good riddance.
Well, if you want to play Bible Bingo, go try Revelation 3:20, and Luke 23:39-43. Salvation is available until we breath our last.
Gotta go.
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