Why is legitimacy important?

[nodito]

I’ve been reading a lot of posts about invalid marriages, putative marriages, annulments, etc and there’s often a concern expressed by the parents involved that these situations affect the legitimacy of their children. Until recently, I had thought of legitimacy as a purely civil concept, until someone pointed out that canon law discusses under what circumstances children are considered legitimate as well.

I understand why it’s important that children be born to married parents. I really believe that children deserve this. But why is the concept of legitimacy important? Why is it important to know/distinguish/name which children were born within marriage and which were not? Beyond our concern for the children involved, who cares about legitimacy?

 

[pensmama87]

It’s my understanding that legitimacy no longer matters according to the current code of canon law, though illegitimacy used to be a barrier to priesthood (though exceptions could be made.)

I think sometimes people are concerned that the children who result from marriages declared invalid may be denied the sacraments, but this is completely false. There is a reasonable expectation for baptism that a child will be raised in the faith, so if the parents are in an irregular situation and aren’t attempting to fix it, that might be a signal that they are not going to raise the child Catholic. But that’s not really about legitimacy, that’s about if the parents practice.

 

[Cojuanco]

Right. And the reason for the illegitimacy barrier (which could be dispensed) was to stop nepotism, because time was rich people would attempt to foist their illegitimate children (who could not inherit land) into the seminary, regardless of whether they had a vocation, because secular priests (not consecrated religious) had the right to their own private property. The provision in the old Canon Law book did not apply to religious, though, because when you make vows or promises, you basically have no private property. The intent was to make sure that you were really entering the priesthood because you wanted to be a priest, not just because it was a convenient nest-egg because you had no share of the inheritance.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

In some countries, illegitimate children could not inherit property, titles of nobility, etc… In the US, this is not the case, but there was a widespread belief that the child somehow bore the shame of his parents.

People who fear that the Church’s rules on the validity of marriage are creating illegitimate children simply do not understand those rules, which actually protect children.

 

[Auntie_A]

Legitimacy of course is and was tied in to legal and inheritance issues. But I do believe there is more than that at a very primal human level.

I have always thought that the legitimacy issue is tied in similarly to the reasons for the banns of marriage: Knowing if someone is already married when you are engaged to them is important; so is knowing who someone’s parents are so you do not marry your sibling or first cousin.

I have an old catechism that has a chart of relatives, like a family tree and it shows which cousins you can marry and which you should avoid marrying. Based on the problems of the European royalty who married their first cousins and had serious problems with their offspring; based on our present knowledge of the genetic dangers of intermarriage; and based on the idea that children grow best in a family where they are not sexual prey; all of this is good reason to KNOW the background of someone. Legitimacy, at its best, brings the truth forward; at its worst, it can distort or hide a truth if someone lies about the contributing parents.

My point is that we need to help our kids know their lineage for their own good. Legitimacy may be part of that.

 

[Cojuanco]

In some countries, illegitimate children could not inherit property, titles of nobility, etc… In the US, this is not the case, but there was a widespread belief that the child somehow bore the shame of his parents.

People who fear that the Church’s rules on the validity of marriage are creating illegitimate children simply do not understand those rules, which actually protect children.

Indeed. Illegitimacy under the old Code IIRC only applied in admissions to seminaries, even. Otherwise one could be born out of wedlock and live a normal Catholic life, subject to the civil laws of his time.

The reason that the admission requirement has been abolished altogether is that in most Catholic countries, illegitimate offspring can inherit property just like anyone else these days. So there’s no reason why they would try to join the priesthood just to circumvent the requirements of secular probate law.

Even in the old Code, however, the children of annulled parents were IIRC treated as legitimate - the contention being that their parents acted in good faith presumably. The problem is historically and today people conflated canon law rules on legitimacy with those of the civil law, which led to the erroneous presumption that an annulment would render them bastards under Canon Law. It might do so under civil law (for example, in England, with King Henry VIII, because the civil law at the time rendered children of invalid unions not legitimate), but as far as canon law is concerned, they would have been legitimate or as good as.

 

[heidi_storage]

Legitimacy of course is and was tied in to legal and inheritance issues. But I do believe there is more than that at a very primal human level.

I have always thought that the legitimacy issue is tied in similarly to the reasons for the banns of marriage: Knowing if someone is already married when you are engaged to them is important; so is knowing who someone’s parents are so you do not marry your sibling or first cousin.

I have an old catechism that has a chart of relatives, like a family tree and it shows which cousins you can marry and which you should avoid marrying. Based on the problems of the European royalty who married their first cousins and had serious problems with their offspring; based on our present knowledge of the genetic dangers of intermarriage; and based on the idea that children grow best in a family where they are not sexual prey; all of this is good reason to KNOW the background of someone. Legitimacy, at its best, brings the truth forward; at its worst, it can distort or hide a truth if someone lies about the contributing parents.

My point is that we need to help our kids know their lineage for their own good. Legitimacy may be part of that.

Good point. Here’s a sticky situation:

slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2013/08/dear_prudence_my_niece_is_about_to_marry_my_secret_son_by_an_affair.html