The Formal Act of Defection and U.S. Catholic Deconversion

Between 1983 and 2010, the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church permitted Latin Rite Catholics to defect “by a formal act.” This canonical innovation differed sharply from the church’s longstanding approach to the question of membership, and it was ultimately repealed by a motu proprio of Pope Benedict XVI, who cited both pastoral and legal reasons for eliminating the formal act of defection. Prior to the pope’s action, however, thousands of Catholics in multiple countries used the formal act of defection as a means to solemnize their departure from the church. This essay reviews the history of the formal act of defection and presents the results of the first published survey of U.S. Latin Rite diocesan administrators concerning defection. A majority of dioceses in the survey received requests from members wishing to defect; some continue to grant these requests today, notwithstanding Pope Benedict’s decree to the contrary. The phenomenon of defection exposes tensions within Catholic theology and practice concerning membership, tensions that are also felt between official teachings and the ordinary theology of many Catholics inasmuch as church categories concerning membership do not map effectively onto quotidian Catholic experience. These results contribute to a fuller understanding of deconversion from Catholicism.