What does «apostasía» mean in Spanish?
- The action of abandoning or publicly denying the religion one professes or with which one has been educated. For the Catholic Church, apostasy is a grave sin, along with schism and heresy. To such an extent that, during the Middle Ages, it was punishable by death. In the Code of Canon Law, apostasy is defined in canon 751 as "the total rejection of the Christian faith", which was received through baptism.
Examples of use in Spanish: "la apostasía del emperador Juliano".
- Desertion from a party, change of opinion or doctrine.
- Irregular departure or abandonment of a religious order or institute.
- Act of the clergyman who usually dispenses with his condition, failing to fulfill his clerical obligations.
- Today, apostasy is claimed as a right by certain groups (atheists for example), as an extension of the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of worship. These groups claim that they should be declared apostates and that any record of belonging to any religion should be eliminated. To formally apostatize consists of following a difficult procedure whose purpose is to erase the data of apostates from all religious records (such as baptismal records), so that they are no longer counted as members of this religion.