In truth and charity, my response is to advise you against breaking full communion with the Catholic Church which was founded by Jesus Christ the Son of God. If a person, with full knowledge and deliberate consent, breaks full communion with the Church that Jesus Christ established as His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, that act would be a mortal sin which cuts him or her off from the life of grace, thus endangering the person's immortal soul. The Catholic Church also teaches that baptism cannot be reversed or 'undone,' thus once a person is baptized he or she remains a Christian for eternity. It is my duty to inform you that you will always have the opportunity of reconciliation through repentance and absolution in the Sacrament of Penance, even until your last breath on earth. This is the charity that the ministers of the Catholic Church will always extend to you. There is no longer any "formal defection from the Catholic Church" according to its law, therefore, the Church's law does not afford me or any other bishop the option of granting your request. Sacramental registers are records of actual events that have occurred. They are the property of the parish church. No information contained in them can be removed, erased, or willingly destroyed, because they are records of ministerial actions that have occurred.

Sincerely yours in Christ our Lord,

Most Reverend John O. Barres, Bishop of Allentown, PA