Defrocking

doesn't, strictly speaking, have any meaning in Catholic usage. "You are a Priest Forever" actually means what it says for the Church. There are two ways of leaving the ministry: by ejection, as a penalty ["degradation" in the old usage or "dismissal from the clerical state" (1983 CIC 1336.1, n. 5)], or by having a request for dispensation granted [laisization]. These distinctions do not register with those in the MSM who would be teaching us, though:

Mt. Rainier, Puyallup and Defrocking:

One of the ways that Out of Staters periodically embarrass themselves when they visit Washington (the New England of the West Coast) is by making casual knowing references to things they know little about. So, for instance, when somebody insouciantly declares that they are going to take a drive out to "Renyay" or visit "Poo yall up" Washingtonians smile cryptically and look at the floor. (Hint: It's "Pew al up" and "Rayneer" and you aren't from around here, are you stranger?)

When I read the hysteria in the daily installments of the Get Benedict Campaign that the media has ginned up, I feel the same way. Everybody keeps screaming about "defrocking" and seems to think they know what they are talking about about. So we were breathlessly informed us that Benedict refused to punish a pervert California priest with "defrocking". The mob shouts in righteous indignation!

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)