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Wanderley Massafelli/Photcall Ireland
Religion
Website that helps people leave the Catholic Church to cease operations
Over 12,000 people downloaded a Declaration of Defection from CountMeOut.ie, but changes to canon law have made it difficult for the site to operate, a founder says.
4.07pm, 8 Aug 2013
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ONE OF THE founders of a website that provided information and assistance to people who wished to officially leave the Catholic Church has said that the site will close, because formal rules for leaving the church are so hard to navigate.
Countmeout.ie was established in 2009, offering visitors a Declaration of Defection form that could be mailed to a local parish priest. An annotation would then be added to a person’s baptismal certificate, thereby formally severing a persons ties with Catholicism.
Over 12,000 of the forms were downloaded from the site, but an official change to canon law in 2009 has made it impossible to formally defect from the church. The Archdiocese of Dublin said that it will maintain a register of those who have expressed an interest in defecting.
However, without the baptismal certificate annotation, the group says that the register is irrelevant.
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Paul Dunbar, one of three people who had founded the CountMeOut website, said that trying to find ways around the 2009 decision by Pope Benedict XVI to abolish formal defection was like “repeatedly hitting our head against a brick wall”.
“We can’t get a meaningful answer from anyone in the Catholic Church, so we’ve decided to cease operations.”
Dunbar says that even since defection was abolished, many people have visited the website, mailed the owners and “reflected on their own relationship with the Catholic Church.”
“The campaign proved very successful in the early stages and generated a lot of debate.
As a group, we felt it was important for people to reflect on their relationship with the church and decide whether they could remain as a member.
“The website will remain live for a number of months as we feel the information available on the site may prove useful to some.”
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If immigration was apparently the top issue, and the single-issue far-right anti-immigrant parties couldn’t even get seats, then there is no hope for them lol. The current govt who have been overseeing the migration “issue” is reelected. This echo chamber won’t be happy and clearly doesn’t reflect the rest of the nation.
@9QRixo8H: these people predominately exist on social media and are based on foreign soil. They absolutely do not represent the views of the vast majority of Irish people
ming has worked tirelessly to call out hypocrisy corruption and general BS since he started in his career.. he is one of the most honest politicians I’ve ever come across.. he actually wants to improve our country.. most politicians are just spouting about whatever topical soundbites are currently fashionable to have an opinion on, while behind the scenes being only interested in lining their pockets.. this man is the real deal.. just my opinion..
@Oh Mammy: Think he supports FFG, who have topped the polls. How many votes did your far right parties get? You’ve all been very quiet licking those wounds.
At least he called out the agribusiness lobby. On a radio discussion some idiot tried to raise the “derogation issue.
Ming pointed out that it affected some 300 farmers in the constituency out of 13,000 and asked why it should be discussed.
No. 1 for me!
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