Requests for baptismal records to be struck off
The child abuse scandals rocking Belgium’s powerful Roman Catholic Church are also shaking the faith of followers, with more and more people asking to be struck off baptism registers — a global movement known as “de-baptism”, Philippe Siuberski of AFP reports
“When you don’t agree with an organisation that you never chose to join in pass4sure 1Z1-868the first place, the healthiest thing to do is to leave,” Damien Spleeters told AFP.
In this mainly Catholic country of 10 million people, the 24-year-old is among a growing crowd exasperated by church policy on issues such as AIDS, and angered by revelations last year of massive child abuse by priests pass4sure 70-298 and lay workers.
After reports in April that the Bishop of Bruges had sexually abused his own nephew for 13 years, starting when the boy was five, a church-backed commission in September issued graphic testimony of nearly 500 cases of child abuse by priests and lay workers, including 13 victims who committed suicide.
While national statistics are unavailable on the number of people seeking to quit the church, Friends of Secular Morality, which is active in four of Belgium’s 10 provinces, said it has been helping increasing numbers to de-baptise.
“In 2010, we worked on 1,700 cases compared to 380 in 2009 and only 66 in 2008”, Leclerq said.
The church itself played down the phenomenon. More at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gQ-MCnX8iTgt4Pl-n5SKuh-dtizA?docId=CNG.400a3e587d2193b4c35f133d08db3b96.241