Make It Official

Say you're tired of being a Catholic and you'd like to quit.

You can't just stop going to Mass. Like any other bureaucracy, there's paperwork to be submitted and procedures to follow.

Imagine ringing up your local bishop and asking questions about leaving the Church. Wouldn't really expect to be given the answers in a straightforward manner, would you?

Thanks to Paul Dunbar, there's a place to go that offers all the help you might need to tell the hierarchy: "I quit".

Before you make your way to Count Me Out, however, and make some rash decision without being warned in advance, Martin Long of the Catholic Communications Office reminds us all that quitting the Church means you might find it difficult to enroll your children in a Catholic school.

You wouldn't be Catholic any more, and it's the Catholic parents who get priority seating for their wee little ones when it comes time for education. As far as Mr. Long is concerned, it's too much of a contradiction to make any sense. If you don't want to be a Catholic, how could you possibly want your child to be educated in a Catholic setting?

Once you've made your protest, you can of course change your mind. The Church is all about forgiveness, the prodigal being welcomed back with open arms and a banquet of veal. If you're defecting because you're outraged over the clerical sexual abuse scandal, you have the option of returning to the fold if and when the Vatican figures out how to deal with sexuality among the celibate.