Jan. 10: The child abuse scandals that are rocking Belgium’s powerful Catholic Church are also shaking the faith of followers: more and more people are asking to be struck off baptism registers — a global movement known as “de-baptism”.
“When you don’t agree with an organisation that you never chose to join in the first place, the healthiest thing to do is to leave,” Mr Damien Spleeters said.
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 last year’s many revelations of child abuse by priests and lay workers.
After reports that the Bishop of Bruges had sexually abused his 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. Mr Spleeters last year wrote to the bishop overseeing the parish where his parents had him christened as a baby to inform that he no longer wanted the church “to speak in his name” and his name be struck off the baptism register.