Has being gay become more socially acceptable than being an atheist?

[Mr. Moncrieff]

I enquired about officially leaving the Catholic Church the other day and the hoops I will have to jump through, coupled with the time it will take, is truly phenomenal.

I have never known the process of leaving a group to be so convoluted.

I would surmise that many millions of ex-Catholics who think they have left the Church officially, haven't left the Church at all and are therefore counted in with the numbers.

I would go further and suggest that those people maybe account for 20% - 30% of the Catholic community.

They changed the ruling in about 2009 if I recall as they had experienced a rapid and significant drop in numbers. This was largely down to the backlash as regards the abuse scandals. Since then, to combat this, the Church has increasingly made the process complicated and very confusing.

Simply to save face and point to numbers - how very petty and vain.

I'd be amazed if maybe 20% of Catholics were actually practising regularly anymore.

However, with the increasing opposition to the Church and the generations of children who are not being baptised, those numbers might well fall off a cliff quite soon.