Issues Re: Catholic School Enrollment

Q. I have a Catholic friend who is twice divorced and has remarried. They have a son and when they tried to enroll him in a Catholic school, the priest said their son was illegitimate. Is that true?

A. I don’t have the whole picture so I’m going to answer the question based on the assumption that the first marriages had biblical reasons for the divorce. If that is true, then their son is not illegitimate biblically. Now, what the priest was referring to was the Catholic doctrine concerning divorce. They are very strict about it and it is almost never allowed as far as canon law. The Church of England was started because of this doctrine of divorce when King Henry VIII wanted a divorce and it was not granted. This goes back to the same old problem that has plagued mankind since creation, and that is making man-made laws the override what God has said. This is not a Catholic problem. The Pharisees of the First Century had a similar system. They believed there was two Torah’s, one written and one Oral. Yeshua took them to task on many occasions

about their traditions. The Orthodox Jews of today are modern day Pharisees and they believe that if a rabbi tells you your right hand is left and your left hand is right, you must believe them. They believe that the oral law takes precedence over the written when there is a conflict, thus invalidating the commandments of God. They teach that Moses received the written law and an oral law on Sinai, which isn’t true but they teach it. Now, we can shake our heads and say “How can they believe that” but Christianity does the same thing. The Catholic Church comes along and is basically formed 300 years after Yeshua. They changed many of God’s commandments including Saturday to Sunday as far as the Lord’s day, instituted non-biblical festivals and so on and man cannot invalidate God’s commandments. They believe in what is called “apostolic authority” which means that the leaders have authority from God to change these things because they are the spiritual descendants of the Apostles. They teach that Yeshua gave them direct authority to change things that are clearly written in the Scriptures and when you are ordained that authority passes to you and so on through the generations.

It’s the same doctrine the Pharisees believed and Judaism practices today. Protestants believe the same thing by the way so it’s not just Judaism and Catholics. Protestants say Sunday is the Lord’s day when there is no evidence for that in the Scripture and has never been proved. That doctrine comes solely from the Catholic Church. There are many more man-made laws that are passed on as biblical also. Now, with that back-round let’s get a little more specific about your question. Divorce under certain circumstances is allowed in the Scriptures (Deut. 24.1). It is not the ideal situation but we live in a fallen world and sometimes there is no choice (abandonment and so on). If your friend’s situation falls into a category like that then he is free to remarry and if they have any children they would not be considered illegitimate biblically. The priest made his remarks because of their Church doctrine on his divorce. He felt that if the divorce was not legal than any child born from a subsequent marriage would not be “legal” either. I hope this helps.