Author Topic: Does marriage remove illegitimacy? (Read 6351 times)

JohnGrey · « **Reply #10 on:** August 08, 2012, 08:55:10 AM »

Quote from: PenitentWoman

JohnGrey, I guess maybe I should at least be thankful that I was blessed with a daughter and not a son. That sounds horrible, but at least for a girl it won't create a direct impediment to a possible vocation.

This is so, as a religious profession does cure illegitimacy, though it would still prevent her from advancement to the rank of abbess or prioress.

Quote from: PenitentWoman

I asked because on the tradition in action website, it says this:

What are the solutions for such a scandalous situation?

The first is marriage. If the woman finds another man of upright character who marries her in the Church and takes her and the child under his custody, her situation is regularized. He covers her shame with his honor and his name.

I was not sure what 'regularized' meant for the child.

The marriage would regularize her, not the child. In entering into marriage, her role as mother is brought into harmony with the fundamental paradigm of the Christian family, and her motherhood is no longer an open confession of a prior indiscretion.

Quote from: PenitentWoman

This confuses me though:

This confuses me: http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/k011rpUnwedMothers_Stretenovic.html

“The Church, faithful to her traditional policy in favor of marriage, abandons her rigor when the person repairs the fault. It was a strong rigor, indeed, but one can verify that Canon Law, which aims at the reparation of the disorder as much as for its condemnation, is wide open and favors legitimizing [the illegitimate child] by a subsequent marriage”

This, to me, implies subsequent marriage could be to someone other than the natural father. I might be reading it wrong.

Thorn was correct in questioning the assetions of Mr. Sretenovic (I refuse him the dignity of Father until I know that he has been properly ordained in a valid rite), given that he was formed in the spiritual sickness of the conciliar anti-church. In fact, I find no basis for his fundamental point at all. Even in the perfidious conciliar code of "canon law" it states:

Illegitimate children are legitimated by the subsequent valid or putative marriage of their parents or by a rescript of the Holy See.

PenitentWoman · « **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2012, 10:38:47 AM »

Thank you.

PenitentWoman · « **Reply #12 on:** August 08, 2012, 12:25:13 PM »

I'm not sure why there would be thumbs down to the people who answered my question. I wanted to know the truth. I'm not so good at vetting reliable Traditional Catholic resources yet, so I asked. I am grateful for honesty, even when it is personally painful for me. If I didn't want the truth, there are certainly other places I could go back to.

Nishant · « **Reply #13 on:** August 08, 2012, 05:44:46 PM »

The Church's law reveals both her justice and mercy. Justice because she is not indifferent to sin, especially public sin, and mercy because she shows clemency to those who are sincerely contrite over their past offenses as opposed to those who are not.

It should be said that illegitimacy is only a canonical impediment to ordination, not a natural one, and therefore admits of dispensation. The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia article quoted by Telesphorus gives a good description,

Quote

This law is not established and laid down as a punishment for the person to whom it is applied. It safeguards the honour and dignity of Holy orders. The clerical state which has the dispensing of the mysteries of God must be beyond reproach. No stain should be upon it, no blame possible. Therefore the Church raises the barrier of illegitimacy before the entrance to the priesthood. Thus the crime of the parents is held up to just reprobation, and is condemned even in the lives of their offspring. The danger of the father's incontinence being continued in the life of the son is greatly lessened, for strong indications of purity of life must be given before the door of God's ministry can be opened.

The defect of illegitimate birth may be cured in four ways: (1) By the subsequent marriage of the parents; (2) By a rescript of the pope; (3) By religious profession; (4) By a dispensation.

PenitentWoman · « **Reply #14 on:** August 10, 2012, 07:49:39 AM »

Quote from: Nishant2011

The Church's law reveals both her justice and mercy. Justice because she is not indifferent to sin, especially public sin, and mercy because she shows clemency to those who are sincerely contrite over their past offenses as opposed to those who are not.

Thank you, Nishant.