I’ve written before about my strong desire to seek official excommunication from the Catholic church. The Pope’s pronouncement yesterday, that condoms are the cause of HIV AIDS, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

After watching an interview on Channel 4 television yesterday, in which a spokesperson for a Catholic relief charity screamed her way from one factual falsehood to another—literally condoning the teaching of lies to those most in need of the facts, I leapt to my feet and knocked on the door of my local parish priest.

Perhaps it was better for both of us that he was otherwise engaged. I doubt he wanted to hear about how his employers disdain for contraception, contradicts their financial investment in the companies who make them—much less did I want to hear yet more apologetics, on the moral imperative of prayer, while protecting pedophile priests is a “media exaggeration”.

Dr John Hunt, a nurse, is one of a growing number of people around the world who want their former involvement with faith groups to be struck from official records. [MORE]

Having given myself a good night’s sleep to calm down and thanks to magic of twitter, I now read the heart warming news that I am not alone, in my desire to have my name officially removed from the record as being baptised Catholic.

Roman Catholic canon law allows a process known as a “formal act of defection” from the faith. This means that a note will be made on a person’s baptismal record stating that they have left the church.

Stay tuned here and follow me on twitter, for updates on how my campaign goes, in seeking official conformation I am no longer a Catholic, from the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.