MORE THAN 2,000 people have indicated their intention to formally leave the Catholic Church, through the website www.countmeout.ie, set up last month.
The website provides a three-step online process that simplifies the creation of a “declaration of defection”, the document that declares the intention to defect from the church.
From July 8th to yesterday evening, some 2,080 people had completed the declaration of defection. However, it is not yet known how many applications have been processed.
Paul Dunbar, who founded the website with Cormac Flynn and Gráinne O’Sullivan, said feedback suggested many people had completed the process, but it was difficult to know exactly how many.
On average, 10-20 people download the declaration to defect every day. Mr Dunbar said he expected this number to increase when the Dublin diocesan child abuse report is released later this year.
He said they had set up the website because they had found it very difficult to get information when they wished to defect.
Reactions from web visitors varied from “I’ve wanted to get out for years” to “What are the consequences?” he added.
The website also highlights the consequences of defecting. It points out that formally leaving the Catholic Church excludes you from Catholic ceremonies, but not from attending such ceremonies. It could affect your child’s chances of attending the local Catholic-run school, if he or she has not been baptised.
Catholic schools have the right to refuse the enrolment of children who are not Catholics. Mr Dunbar said the impact on their children’s education was “the number one reason” people gave for not going ahead with a defection.
The director of the Catholic Communications Office, Martin Long, said it was very sad if people felt the need to defect from the church, but there was no impediment to it. There were contradictions in someone wanting to leave the church but still have a child educated in a church-run school, Mr Long said.
Some dioceses received one or two applications for defections per year, while others did not receive any, he added.
“Quite often, there will be an offer to discuss it from the parish. When people have the full information, they may or may not want to go through with it. If you do make that decision, there are consequences that will flow from it.”
