Why Leave the Roman Catholic Church??

Principle

Religion is a community but not about being one.  Religion is a system of belief or faith but not about belief or faith.  It is about principle.  But I say all the time that there are religious belief systems and communities?  I do.  But you can have community or belief systems without religion.  So what is happening is religion is claiming to be about principle and that is what it builds community and faith on and around.  It is not a community but a community of principle so it's really about the principle.  It's not a faith but a principle expressed as faith.

People want to forget that religion is about principle and principle is about what you stick by no matter what.

Religion is not the same as any group or society that has a good and bad side which everybody has mixed feelings about.  If religion is just in principle wrong then it is about the wrong principle or wrong principles and should and must be walked away from.  Fast.

One bad principle in religion is how religion says there is love and goodness from God in all evil situations so there is no evil that shows there is no God.  What they mean is that they are so good that they can sense if not see the love in it when nothing else or no one else can.  Make no mistake.  This is self-glorification and pride that protects its fragility by posing as humility.  Prayer is an outworking of this evil.

People are leaving - you are in company

Lots of people today are leaving the Roman Catholic Church.

Some become unChurched Christians and others become atheists or agnostics.

The usual way to leave is just to lapse but few have the sincerity to drop the Church for their wedding or funeral.  They are not people of principle and they are sending the message: "Deep down we do think it is all true".  That may not be the message but the fact remains they suggest it might be even if it is not and that is where the damage is done.  This is about refusing to facilitate a bad or false spiritual message. In this case, we don't want to promote a false religion.

Proper leaving or completed leaving entails making it official.  A declaration of some sort is needed.  You enter a religion publicly so you must leave it the same way.

Reasons for leaving

Common reasons for leaving the Church are -

Intellectual doubts: the existence and character of God; suffering; faith and science, pluralism. Doubts about the religion really being based on God's authority rather than man's.

Negative church experience: hyper-spirituality, division, unanswered prayer, hypocrisy, legalism, guilt, excessive control, forced into Church by baptism and confirmation.

Rebellion against social pressure to conform religiously: pressure to believe from parents and friends with the - perhaps implied - threat of the loss of friendships and close relationships should you leave.

New cultural experiences and increasing independence: moving physically to a new culture, perhaps religion, and context

Indifferentism - some just switch religions like they change their pajamas for they think no religious opinion is better than another so it does not matter.

To get rid of the religious label or to protest how it has any consequences never mind harmful ones. A religious label may be nonsense and a lie but it still has effects. While an atheist should regard baptism and church membership as social constructs and not as real, the Catholic sees them as real in the spiritual sense. You are regarded as ontologically a Catholic when you are baptised. Ontological means what you are - what your identity and nature is.

#THE RELIGION HAS THE RIGHT TO MAKE ITS OWN RULES

It doesn't matter whether Catholicism is from God or man, the fact remains that if you sign up to it you are obligated to worship in it not in other Churches except in ceremonies that are non-denominational. You are obligated to believe what it commands and to refuse to deny the doctrines you struggle with. A religion cannot function without boundaries. It is not the religion that binds you to worship but your own signing up to it. However Catholicism would disagree and argue that as the Church is God's only authorised way of bringing you to himself that there is more to it than just your consent. You are obligated also because God commands it. We reject that view. To release yourself from the obligation to believe the Church and obey you must leave the Church publicly. This duty comes from reason and commonsense.

It is confusing and even upsetting for seekers how there can be so many professed Catholics who pick and choose what they want to think from the Catholic religion. Those individualists think that if they reject some teachings even if they are core ones they can still call themselves Catholic. So that redefines Catholic as one who likes or follows some of the practices or teachings. But some may not be enough. Who defines what is enough? They are saying that the word Catholic is about how you define yourself. So if you call yourself one and claim to identify as one then you are one. That is an insult to dedicated Catholics and discourages attempts to be properly dedicated. It is nonsense. Too many people like you and soon there will be no Catholic religion. The label you want is a puzzle for you have emptied the label of any real value or meaning. Is it a label you want or an excuse to call yourself Catholic?

The word Catholic is meant to describe the core characteristic and feature of the religion and not be a mere label. Catholic means universal – the faith that all can join if they inform themselves carefully. Thus the proper label for a cherry-picker from a Catholic background is not Catholic but Protestant. 

Be warned that a label for the sake of a label is just an excuse for dividing. For that reason there is no excuse for cherry-picking.  It happens largely not out of respect for the truth but because everybody else seems to be doing it.

Remember, Hitler cherry-picked!

#WHY BOTHER WITH AN OFFICIAL DEPARTURE? 
 
The Catholic will tell those who want to leave, "Why bother getting your name off the books or formally defecting? If you don't believe then it doesn't matter. But surely not believing is a reason for getting your name off and terminating membership? The Catholic is not respecting the freedom of belief of the defector. And would the Catholic be happy if he or she was enrolled as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or Islam or Hinduism?
 
The Catholic faith is a public faith. You represent and stand for the Church in all that you do if you are a Catholic. When you sin, you give bad example but you promote the faith in the sense that you show what a Catholic should not do. To be Catholic is to advertise Catholicism. The Church stresses this with its doctrine that it is a family and a communion and universal or Catholic and meant for all nations and people and individuals. If the Church is false you have to stop the advertising by leaving publicly and properly.

Just go!

You must leave. Leave to avoid tacit approval or indirect approval for its dark teachings. Rebel totally against its lack of concern for giving evidence for its teachings. To rebel totally means leaving.

If you are in a religion that pretends to be from God when it is based on human authority, like anything human it will do some harm and perhaps get even worse. An honest person does not stay in a religion that they think makes grave errors when they can leave.

Leave to avoid the dishonesty of picking and choosing doctrines as if from a menu.
 
Leave to respect the Church and its people by refusing to act like a loyal member when you are not. People die out of loyalty to the faith so you have no right to stay just to suit yourself.

What do you do then?

Take care of the records and get your name removed. 

You can defect from the Church by officially joining another religion or atheist or humanist group.

Avoid having to pay money to the church which it will use to spread its errors and dangerous teaching. A member has a duty to pay under Church law and the fact that if you think your religion is true and good then you should financially support it. One advantage of being an ex-member is being free from the duty to pay money to a religion that will use it in political campaigns to stop contraception and other human rights.
 
Avoid having to pay money for the support of deceiving theologians and bishops and popes. The Church openly teaches that the gospel message comes first. It only engages in charity work because the message would look bad if it didn't. Do not support Catholic charities that have a missionary ethos.
 
Avoid giving bad example to Catholics and those who are interested in Catholicism. To say things like, "I want to stay in the Church though I think it is rubbish and others have the right to leave if they want to and I don't care - that is their choice" is really to mock rationality. Leaving is not an option but a duty if the religion is really rubbish. If you don't take a stand for integrity you are contributing to the rot in society and it is because of people similar to you that we have political corruption.

A religion has to have standards of what makes you a proper or okay member.  Denying those standards and claiming to be a good member is self-defeating for it lacks credibility for anybody can just say something. The only way to support good principles and the truth is to depart a faulty or mistaken or lying religion.

It is vital that Catholics defect from the Church for the reasons given. Leave the Church.