Photo credit: Me. Savannah, Ga.
On the front page of the San Antonio Express News yesterday was a story about a teacher fired from the city’s all-boys Catholic high school after marrying a divorcee. The reasoning given for her dismissal was that her husband’s previous marriage had not been annulled, meaning he wasn’t “officially” un-married from his first wife.
I have three close family members who are divorced and have since remarried. Two are Catholic, and both have been refused communion on occasion because their previous marriages were not annulled. The one who divorced her husband because he was an alcoholic is a devout, faithful woman and was deeply hurt by her church’s rejection. She looked into having her marriage annulled and was told the process would cost $800. On top of that, the Pope could still reject the request.
She didn’t have the money. Even if she did, she never would have handed it over for something like that. “What about my kids?” she asked angrily when we discussed the issue. Technically, if her marriage was annulled, that would mean it never happened. In turn, it would mean that the six children she had with her first husband – all baptized Catholics – would become either non-existent or illegitimate bastards in the eyes of the church.
“What was Jesus trying to tell us when he cleared the buyers and sellers out of the temple?” she asked. “It’s not all about money. Faith is not about money.”
The other relative who has been refused communion now attends a different Catholic church, where the expensive technicality is overlooked because of his upstanding citizenship. He reads in church most Sundays and for several years has spent at least one weekend a month running the church’s soup kitchen. He is frequently mistaken for the church’s priest, not only because they look like brothers, but because of his truly Christian demeanor – one of kindness, compassion and thoughtful understanding.
