THOUSANDS of disillusioned Catholics have used an Irish website launched less than six months ago to cut their ties with the Church, it has been claimed.The website, www.countmeout.ie, that went online in mid-July, allows people to download all the necessary documentation to leave the Roman Catholic Church.
Latest figures from the website show that more than 3,300 people have downloaded a declaration of defection.
The Church was hit by a wave of defections after the Ryan Report revealed last May that more than 400 children were abused by more than 140 priests.
Another wave of defections is expected to follow publication this week of the report into the Dublin Archdiocese.
Paul Dunbar, Cormac Flynn and Gráinne O’Sullivan, established the website to raise awareness of the process involved in defecting from the Church.
Mr Dunbar said the decision to leave the church was not taken lightly and some people stopped short of signing the documentation after downloading it.
"We do not want to be seen to be befitting from other people’s misery, but we do believe that people will return to the website after the Dublin Archdiocese Report is published and use it to make a decisive break from the Church."
He also believed that more people would defect if the Church lifted its control on schools.
Catholics have been able to defect since 2006 under Vatican II. Many dioceses, however, are reluctant to disclose defection figures.
The Dublin dioceses recently pointed out that 72 people had defected and just under 100 were in the process of doing so.
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