Uploaded March 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On Sunday, April 10th 2011 people all over Ireland will be sitting down to fill out their census forms. This will differ from the biblical census decreed by Caesar Augustus in that it will actually take place. There will also be no need for anybody to return to their birthplace to complete it, just like every census ever taken. Apart from that one that never happened
Brazilian child rape case:
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46105
For information about the census questions:
http://www.census.ie/The-Census-Form/Each-question-in-detail.109.1.aspx
For information about Count Me Out (currently suspended):
http://www.countmeout.ie/suspension/
Atheist Ireland website:
http://www.atheist.ie/
Atheist Ireland on Facebook:
facebook.com/group.php?gid=43565376225
Statement from Assistant Chancellor Rev. Fintan Gavin, D.C.L of the Archdiocese of Dublin concerning the changes to canon law:
Through baptism a person is born again, becomes a child of God, made like to Christ by an indelible character. He/she is also incorporated into the Church. For Christians that rebirth into Christ and his Church is a permanent, enduring reality. In a natural family, where offspring wish to have nothing to do with their family of origin, the familial bond, nonetheless, endures. It is the same with the family that is the Church of Christ. This is the key and essential difference between baptism and being, for example, a member of an organisation. In the latter case one simply resigns. No bond endures with the organisation after resignation.
The Church regrets but respects the decision of those who choose to leave. But such an act cannot change a fact of faith: that the sacramental bond of belonging to the Body of Christ cannot be lost by any such act. The Church, as a result, will always be there for them. The sacramental bond remains the basis for its care and interest. As a result, no action of the Church can ever give rise to a doubt or give a contrary impression concerning these fundamental tenets of Christian faith.
The formal act of defection related specifically to the right to marry. It was brought in to facilitate the exercise of the right to marry by those members of the faithful, who, due to their estrangement from the Church, were unlikely to observe the prescriptions of canon law that require a specific form of marriage to be undertaken for its validity. In relation to this, it is important to remember that marriage is an institution within society pre-dating its establishment as a Sacrament by Christ.
Baptismal registers record among other things, those acts which affect the exercise of one's right in the Church. So, for example, it records when one is married in the Church, or is ordained. Formal acts of defection were recorded in baptismal registers for the same reason.
De facto defections, in general, refer to those who leave the Church without any wish to have this recorded. It now also refers -- with the abolition of the formal act of defection -- to those who wish to have their desire to leave the Church recorded: such acts do not have any legal effect in canon law and so are no longer noted in the baptismal register.
The maintenance of a register that records the desire of those who wish to leave the Church is an initiative of the Archdiocese of Dublin. It is an attempt, in the present circumstance, to acknowledge and respect those who wish to record their desire to leave the Church.
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Aside from the completely unsatisfactory explanation of the amendments, what I find particularly informative is the statement regarding marriage as an institution that pre-dates the church. Kind of makes you wonder why the church keeps harping on about the sanctity of marriage...
On Sunday, April 10th 2011 people all over Ireland will be sitting down to fill out their census forms. This will differ from the biblical census decreed by Caesar Augustus in that it will actually take place. There will also be no need for anybody to return to their birthplace to complete it, just like every census ever taken. Apart from that one that never happened
Brazilian child rape case:
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46105
For information about the census questions:
http://www.census.ie/The-Census-Form/Each-question-in-detail.109.1.aspx
For information about Count Me Out (currently suspended):
http://www.countmeout.ie/suspension/
Atheist Ireland website:
http://www.atheist.ie/
Atheist Ireland on Facebook:
facebook.com/group.php?gid=43565376225
Statement from Assistant Chancellor Rev. Fintan Gavin, D.C.L of the Archdiocese of Dublin concerning the changes to canon law:
Through baptism a person is born again, becomes a child of God, made like to Christ by an indelible character. He/she is also incorporated into the Church. For Christians that rebirth into Christ and his Church is a permanent, enduring reality. In a natural family, where offspring wish to have nothing to do with their family of origin, the familial bond, nonetheless, endures. It is the same with the family that is the Church of Christ. This is the key and essential difference between baptism and being, for example, a member of an organisation. In the latter case one simply resigns. No bond endures with the organisation after resignation.
The Church regrets but respects the decision of those who choose to leave. But such an act cannot change a fact of faith: that the sacramental bond of belonging to the Body of Christ cannot be lost by any such act. The Church, as a result, will always be there for them. The sacramental bond remains the basis for its care and interest. As a result, no action of the Church can ever give rise to a doubt or give a contrary impression concerning these fundamental tenets of Christian faith.
The formal act of defection related specifically to the right to marry. It was brought in to facilitate the exercise of the right to marry by those members of the faithful, who, due to their estrangement from the Church, were unlikely to observe the prescriptions of canon law that require a specific form of marriage to be undertaken for its validity. In relation to this, it is important to remember that marriage is an institution within society pre-dating its establishment as a Sacrament by Christ.
Baptismal registers record among other things, those acts which affect the exercise of one's right in the Church. So, for example, it records when one is married in the Church, or is ordained. Formal acts of defection were recorded in baptismal registers for the same reason.
De facto defections, in general, refer to those who leave the Church without any wish to have this recorded. It now also refers -- with the abolition of the formal act of defection -- to those who wish to have their desire to leave the Church recorded: such acts do not have any legal effect in canon law and so are no longer noted in the baptismal register.
The maintenance of a register that records the desire of those who wish to leave the Church is an initiative of the Archdiocese of Dublin. It is an attempt, in the present circumstance, to acknowledge and respect those who wish to record their desire to leave the Church.
******************************
Aside from the completely unsatisfactory explanation of the amendments, what I find particularly informative is the statement regarding marriage as an institution that pre-dates the church. Kind of makes you wonder why the church keeps harping on about the sanctity of marriage...
