My letter of defection.

[lonetread]

Finally finished my letter of defection ("Actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia Catholica") that I started last month. Thoughts/concrit/suggestions are welcome. My grateful thanks to the authors of the letters here, here, and here, from which I shamelessly stole and pieced together my own.

Dear Bishop Farrell,

I am writing to inform you of my defection from the Roman Catholic Church.

My reasons for this are grounded in fundamental disagreements with the doctrines of the Catholic Church. I do not believe in God, sin, saints, miracles (including the virgin birth, resurrection, and assumption of Jesus), or an afterlife. I also am strongly against the positions of the Church on most social and political issues. I feel, for instance, that the Church’s harmful, damaging ideas concerning gay people are the “intrinsic moral evil” here, rather than those people homosexual desires themselves, and want nothing to do with any dogma that anyone who would posit have me believe the opposite.

Further, I am transsexual, and there is no integrity in continuing to be even a nominal member of an institution that refuses outright to accept me as who I am. Therefore, I consciously and freely state that I am defecting from the Roman Catholic Church, no longer wish to be counted among Roman Catholicism’s adherents, and request that my name be removed from church records. I was born in 1987 and baptized and Confirmed (under the name [given first name] [given middle name] [last name]) at:

St. Joseph Catholic Church
600 South Jupiter Road
Richardson, TX 75081

I understand and accept the consequences of this decision my decision to defect, and I wish to clearly state that I have no desire for a Catholic marriage or funeral, or for Last Rites. I have not attended a Catholic church or participated in any of the Catholic sacraments since 2007. From then on, I have regularly attended a local Unitarian Universalist church, where I’ve discovered that the freedom to find my own purpose and meaning in life is more valuable and fulfilling to me than servitude to faith ahead of reason could ever be again.

Please record that I am no longer a Roman Catholic. I would appreciate written confirmation of this request.

Sincerely,

Justin James [last name]

Now to figure out how to contact him and get it printed and in the mail.

ETA: Edited for clarity and to incorporate a change suggested by my parents. (Have to print it out again anyway; the dog ate it. *g* No, really!) Also, I found his contact info, so it'll be going in the mail tomorrow.

Comments

[dime-for-12.livejournal.com]

Wow, very succinct and nicely worded! :DD

[lonetread]

Thanks! :)

[(Anonymous)]

Not enough insults or angry rants. I mean... what kind of defection lacks a boiling sense of outrage?? Frankly, you should insult him, call the Catholic church a perverted body of pedophiliacs, and claim that Mary was the whore of Israel.

Just some suggestions. You don't have to do this though. :-P

[lonetread]

Lol. Darn, too bad it's already in the mailbox. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe a follow-up letter?