October 25, 2009 is “La Giornata dello Sbattezzo”, or Debaptism Day, in Italy. Of course, if you are happily baptized, you are welcome to remain so. It’s your business. And so is debaptism. It’s your choice, and no one else’s.

This is extraordinary in a country where, as journalist Curzio Maltese wrote in his book Alms: The Cost of the Catholic Church in Italy (La Questua, untranslated), “we export brainpower and import saints and sorcerers.”