As Belgian media reported on Wednesday, they sent an open letter to the Apostolic Nuncio, the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and the seven dioceses of Belgium.
The signatories are protesting against statements made by Pope Francis, who described the partial decriminalisation of voluntary abortion as a "murderous law" during his visit to Belgium.
As a result of the Pope's statements, the former Belgian General Delegate for the Rights of the Child, Bernard De Vos, called for a massive "de-baptisation movement" at the beginning of October to express his rejection of the position advocated by Pope Francis.
According to media reports, 524 people have now joined this campaign. In the open letter, the signatories also denounce the handling of abuse cases in the Belgian church and what they see as insufficient support and compensation for those affected by abuse.
Debate about "de-baptisation"
In Belgium, so-called "de-baptisations" have been discussed for some time. Unlike in Germany, it is not possible to formally leave the church in Belgium.
People who wish to leave the church therefore try to have their entry deleted from the church's baptismal register - however, the church rejects this procedure, as the theological principle is: once baptised, always baptised.
The fact that the debate in Belgium is nevertheless being conducted under the heading of "de-baptisation" is partly a problem of the church's own making: the Belgian Bishops' Conference records withdrawals from the church in its church statistics under the heading "applications for removal from the baptism register".
In response to such requests, a note about a "formal withdrawal from the church" is added to the baptismal register entry.