In discussion last year about Fr James Martin’s “America” blog post last year on the question, “What is a Gay Catholic to Do”", one of the responses I described that is often taken is simply to leave (“shaking the dust from my feet”, as one respondent described it, quoting a verse from the New Testament. In the wake of the heavy volumes of publicity recently given to the problems of sexual abuse, and the associated cover-ups and inadequate response from the institutional Church, the letters columns of several newspapers have featured correspondence from people who have left the church - some pained at being driven to do so now, others smug at having done so years ago. Unless the church does something dramatic to rescue its shattered credibility, we can expect many more such withdrawals from the church. Some will be quiet and personal, done without fanfare, some will be personal but formal, and others will be public.

In the case of Peter Toscano and his partner Glen Retief, the reasons for withdrawal are two-fold: gay exclusion, and also the abuse disgrace. At his blog, “Peterson Toscano’s A Musing” Peter reflects on his defection from the Roman Catholic Church, and shares with us a formal letter of resignation that his partner Glen Retief has sent to his bishop. This decision is not one that I share, but it is one with which I have deep sympathy. Michael Kelly, James L’Empereur and several other notable theologians have expressed similar views on the need for queer Catholics to leave the Church, figuratively or literally, temporarily or permanently. Some will return after a period of exile, others will find permanent new homes elsewhere. Here is Peter Toscano’s musing on leaving the Catholic Church:

My partner Glen Retief and I were both baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, taken First Holy Communion and Confirmation. We no longer attend mass and in fact have become involved with the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker).

There are so many things I adore about Glen, but his integrity is high up on the list. He has been aware that as a baptized Roman Catholic, even though he has not worshipped in a RC church for years, he is still counted on the rolls of the church. He has decided to write a formal letter of defection to the church. In it he outlines his reasons for this defection. These include the sexual abuse scandals which has gotten many people to question their relationship to the Church. According to the Count Me Out website:

A formal act of Defection (or “Actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia Catholica” in the original Latin) is a church document that registers a person’s wish to defect from the Roman Catholic Church. This instrument of defection was referenced in Canons 1086 §1, 1117 and 1124 of the Code of Canon Law 1983 but what the act constitutes was only defined in a papal edict of March 13th 2006.

For a defection to be valid, it must fulfill three conditions. The Church states that it is “necessary that there concretely be“:
a) the internal decision to leave the Catholic Church;
b) the realization and external manifestation of that decision; and
c) the reception of that decision by the competent ecclesiastical authority.

Here is the letter that Glen has sent to the local bishop:

Very Rev Chester P Snyder
Diocesan Administrator
Bishop, Office of The
4800 Union Deposit Road
Harrisburg , PA 17111-3710

Dear Father Snyder,

This letter is to inform you of my defection from the Roman Catholic Church. I was baptized at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Nelspruit, South Africa, in 1970, and confirmed in the same parish in 1985. Here is the current contact information for this parish:

P.O. Box 620, Nelspruit 1200 Telephone: +27 (0) 13 752 2559 / facsmile: +27 13 755 2189. Web page http://nelspruitcatholic.org/

My reasons for defection are grounded in a profound disagreement with almost all the elements of Catholic faith and doctrine. I do not believe in a divine law or precepts unshaped by human culture, discourse, and power relationships. I reject papal authority and the authority of the magisterium. Above all, I recoil from the vast majority of what, in my view, the Roman Catholic Church represents in the modern world: misogyny, homophobia, tolerance of sexual abuse, and dogmatic opposition to life-saving HIV prevention, to name just a few examples. My adult view of Roman Catholicism is in fact that the church has become a rough equivalent to the Pharisees as portrayed in the New Testament—an institution that places the letter of the law above loyalty to the values of love and humanity. Thus, for me, formal rejection of Catholicism has become a moral, spiritual, and political imperative.

I therefore no longer wish to be counted among Roman Catholicism’s adherents, lapsed or otherwise, and I wish to clearly state that I have no desire for a Catholic marriage, funeral, or for Last Rites. I wish to completely and unambiguously separate from the church. I am aware of canon law in this regard and accept the consequences of my defection.

I have not attended a Catholic mass, participated in a Catholic sacrament, or given money to any Catholic parish since March 1988. This letter precedes an intended application for membership in the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), where I have regularly been attending since 2004. I hope you will accept this defection and take appropriate steps to amend your records.

Sincerely,

Glen Retief

See also:

The Catholic Church’s Judas Kiss

More on the Judas Kiss: What is a Gay Catholic to Do?

What IS a Gay Catholic to Do? A Question Comes Out of the Closet.

The Road From Emmaus: The Gay & Lesbian Prophetic Role

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