Brussels, Belgium, Oct 17, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).
More than 500 Belgians have demanded to be removed from the baptismal registry (“débaptisation”) in reaction to controversial statements by Pope Francis during his apostolic journey to Luxembourg and Belgium about abortion and the role of women in the Church.
After the pope’s visit to both countries in late September, 524 people have signed a declaration published Oct. 16 in Brussels, according to local media.
In their open letter addressed to the apostolic nuncio in Brussels, Franco Coppola; Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels Luc Terlinden, the primate of the Catholic Church in Belgium; and the seven Catholic dioceses in the country, the signers condemned certain comments made by the pope and called for themselves to be removed from the baptismal registry.
While in Belgium, Pope Francis described the partial decriminalization of voluntary abortion in Belgium as a “murderous law.” On the return flight from Brussels to Rome on Sept. 29, he also called doctors who perform abortions “contract killers.”
The pope’s trip to Belgium marked the 600th anniversary of the Catholic University in Leuven. During his visit to the French-speaking branch of the university in Louvain-la-Neuve, he used the terms “fertile welcome, care, vital devotion” to describe women, which the Vatican’s official English version of the speech translated as “fruitful welcome, nurturing, and life-giving dedication.”
The pope’s words were rejected by the university, which criticized them as betraying a “deterministic and reductive attitude.”
Referring to his comments, some Belgian organizations called for people to join a “de-baptism” movement in order to express rejection of the pope’s comments. To date, three weeks later, 524 people have responded.
A historically Catholic country, since the 1950s Belgium has seen a significant decline in the number of its practicing Christians. A European Commission poll in 2021 found that 44% of the country, which has a population of more than 11.5 million, identifies as Catholic, down from 72% of the population in 1981.
A 2023 study by the Catholic university KU Leuven estimates the number of Catholics in Belgium to be slightly higher, at 50% of the population, but with just 9% attending Mass at least once a month.
In their appeal to the Catholic Church authorities on Wednesday for removal from the official baptism registry, the 524 applicants denounced not only the pope’s statements in Belgium but also a “lukewarm reaction to the violence committed by clergymen close to the pope” against children and women. The leaders of this protest also claim there has been a lack of concrete measures to support and compensate these victims.
However, during his public appearances in Belgium, Pope Francis repeatedly commented on allegations of abuse, asked for forgiveness, and instructed the Belgian bishops to take tougher measures. He also met with 15 representatives from the circle of abuse victims for a personal discussion.
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If a person can get a Declaration of Nullity for the Sacrament of Marriage, it seems like one should be able to apply for a Declaration of Nullity for the other Sacraments as well.
Well, if there was something critical lacking at the time of the Baptism I suppose it wouldn’t be valid either.
mrscracker:
That’s what conditional Baptisms are for: To rectify invalid Baptisms, such as the ones performed by that priest in Arizona.
Any valid baptism cannot be nullified or rescinded in any circumstance, no matter whether the person declares themself no longer a Catholic, or leaves the Church for the rest of his/her life.
Once a baptized Catholic, always a baptized Catholic.
I was baptised at 13 years old, and obviously, I know far more now, and understand far more now, then I did at the time. I got baptised with my friend. It was after confirmation classes were completed for the year (this was a Methodist Church) but before the confirmation ceremony (which I did not attend because we were out of town). I stopped going to church after that.
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Now, really, honestly, if I went to a marriage tribunal with that kind of mentality about my marriage (I don’t mean because I was 13, just all the other events around the baptism–the circumstances), pretty sure I could obtain a Declaration of Nullity.
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So a baby is baptised, and that’s the last time the child ever goes to Church because the parents show up just long enough to get the child baptised, but aren’t interested in the faith much. I remember reading John Hardon, SJ said that baptising a baby who would not be raised in the faith can actually be detrimental.
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NGL, I’ve literally wondered about getting my Confirmation declared Null
Baptism imparts an indelible character. You cannot undo Baptism. You can remove names from State rolls where the State has insinuated itself into the practice of religion, but the State does not inform Ctholic theology.
MrsHess:
An annulment is something that only pertains to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony/Holy Mystery of Crowning.
It does NOT seem like one should should be able to apply for a Declaration of Nullity for the other Sacraments as well. A priest can be defrocked, and marriage can be granted an annulment in certain circumstances. Once you are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and Holy Spirit, you are a Catholic for the rest of your life, whether or not you declare yourself to be debaptized, or declare yourself as no longer a Catholic
You can leave the Church for the remainder of your life, but those 3 Sacraments of Initiation of Baptism, Confirmation, (Chrismation) and Holy Eucharist remain with you and your soul as long as you live.
Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.
Perhaps a better choice of words, but overall, welcome to dystopia. After-the-fact debaptizing sounds a lot like after-the-fact abortion undoing pregnancy.
And, while they’re at it, the 500 Belgians might explain for us why the transgender movement should not remind us of the 1978 sci-fi horror movie, “The Body Snatchers.”
For once, a rare moment Pope Francis is vilified for being morally on target. “The pope’s words were rejected by the university, which criticized them as betraying a deterministic and reductive attitude” (French-speaking branch of the university in Louvain).
Haughty, intellectually distorted faculty, the bane of academia worldwide, rend their garments. Not lacking in vindictiveness they add the criticism of clergy abuse to their outrage as a sort of elevation of their distorted reasoning. When was bringing an infant to birth deterministic? By what logic is describing women as nurturers of the gift of life reductionism.
Their logic is the unprincipled freedom to distort reality. They in effect hurl their disdain at Christus Pantokrator. Leuven/Louvain, among the many Catholic universities that are no longer Catholic.
The discord between Bergoglio’s words and actions is flagrant Liberalism – a sin when Catholics were at the helm of the Roman Institutions presently occupied by freemasons, their sympathisers and traitors.
The 4 maxims in Evangelii Gaudium are a composition deriving from secular thinking stressing worldly toleration. The source is not grace. The same secularist thinking is very often, inconsistent with itself; since it will at times prioritize conflict and ideas with its own part(s) while monopolizing both time and space as usefully as possible. Here we have a demonstration of it by people declaring their wish to be de-baptized; doing this in order to steal away from the Pope and the moral force of his declaration, whatever positive feeling they might now engender. The secularist thinking can’t be moored to faith; it is itself prone to produce its own jumbles while faith works in grace in season and out of season. The 4 maxims have nothing to do with evangelization and we are at a loss what is to be done for the Holy Father, or for the encyclical, about that. Except of course to pray to be faithful.
Belgium, like Holland, is the lion’s den today.
Hope Belgian Archbishop Luc Terlinden is taking lessons from Dutch Cardinal Willem Eijk.
Baptism like several other sacraments is an outward sign of an inward Grace joyfully received by an unique life and celebrated by the Divine residing in the assembled kith and kin. Trying to undo such an in-depth communitarian spiritual branding is a Herculean undertaking. Archival records may depict someone as a paper tiger, paper lion, or a paper Christian. Is that enough?