At the end of September, Pope Francis visited Belgium – and described abortions as “murder” and the doctors involved as “contract killers”. The statements still have an impact: hundreds of Catholic Belgians have requested to be “baptized.”
In Belgium, 524 people have requested to be “baptized.” As Belgian media report, they sent an open letter to the Apostolic Nuncio, the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and the country's seven dioceses.
The signatories are protesting against statements made by Pope Francis, who during his recent visit to Belgium described the partial decriminalization of voluntary abortion as a “murderous law”. The former Belgian general delegate for the rights of the child, Bernard De Vos, then called for a “debaptism movement,” which several hundred people have now joined.
Once baptized, always baptized
Unlike in Germany, it is not possible to formally leave the church in Belgium. Those wishing to leave therefore try to have their entry deleted from the church's baptismal register – but the church rejects this approach, because theologically: once baptized, always baptized.
The Belgian Bishops' Conference records church departures in its statistics under the heading “applications for removal from the baptismal register”. In response to such requests, a note about “formal leaving the church” is added to the baptismal register entry. That's why the debate is under the heading of “debaptism.”
The signatories of the open letter, who are requesting a “debaptism”, have a second problem with their church: They also denounce the way it deals with cases of abuse and what they see as inadequate support and compensation for those affected by abuse.
