Coat of Arms of St. Stephen of Hungary
Q: "Can individuals request to be excommunicated? I was baptized in
Chicago."
A: "You cannot request excommunication from the Catholic Church, nor can one erase one’s baptism. It would be like denying an historical event. Excommunication is reserved for those who, in a very public way, and a way that gives great scandal, indicate through their words or actions that they to not accept the tenets of the faith.
This is what you can do in order to make your desire to leave the
Catholic Church official.
You can prepare a letter stating your intent to remove yourself from
any identification with the Catholic Church and the reason(s) for this.
This must be more than the simple, “I’m fed up the Catholic Church
and I no longer identify with it.” If you know where you were
baptized, that should be included.
This letter can be sent to the Office of Canonical Services, whose
staff will send a form to you to fill out. When that form is returned,
it can be included in your record of baptism. If you do not know where
you was baptized, you may keep the form for your own records.
Office of Canonical Services
Archdiocese of Chicago
835 N. Rush Street
Chicago, IL 60611
