Religion and Divorce

 Posted on March 20, 2019 in Family Law

There were 26,132 divorces in 2016 in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Many of these cases are the dissolution of religious marriages. In fact, 50 percent of residents in Illinois say that religion plays an important role in their lives, according to the Pew Research Center. Depending on their religion, spouses who are planning on getting divorced may need to carry out specific actions before their divorce is recognized by their church or religious leaders. While Illinois courts do not take religion into account at all, a religious divorce validated by a spouses’ church or center of worship may be just as important as the state-recognized divorce, which sorts out custody, visitation, child support, division of property, and more. A DuPage County attorney with experience carrying out religious divorces will be best suited to meeting both your religious and civil divorce needs.

Christian Divorces and Catholic Annulment

For most Christians, their divorce does not need to follow any particular set of rules in order to be seen as valid by the church. However, for some sects of Christianity, such as Catholicism, spouses may need to tread carefully. For example, Catholicism does not allow for a divorced person to remarry within the church. As such, some spouses may wish to have their marriage annulled if at all possible, rather than go through divorce. Other particularities may exist depending on the type of Christianity that you follow. In Illinois, 71 percent of the population follows Christianity, with Catholicism making up the largest sect at 28 percent.

Orthodox Jewish Divorces

For Orthodox Jews hoping to divorce, the husband must submit Get, a written document of proof, to the wife for the divorce to be validated by the synagogue. If the husband refuses to submit Get, the wife cannot divorce the husband. As such, under Orthodox Judaism, the wife cannot remarry and cannot have any more children who are religiously legitimate until Get is submitted by her husband—even though her “husband” may no longer be her actual legal husband under Illinois law at this point. There is no legal recourse for an Orthodox Jewish wife to take in order to force her husband into submitting Get, which is really just his permission. As such, Orthodox Jewish wives have no power in their religious divorce.

Islamic Divorces

Some Islamic marriages are not recognized by the state of Illinois or the federal government at all. Such a marriage, therefore, cannot be dissolved, because it never legally existed in the first place For these types of marriages, divorce must be handled by a Muslim divorce lawyer. However, child support, visitation, and child custody are still controlled and recognized by courts, even if the couple was never legally married, and these issues need to be handled by an experienced divorce attorney.

A DuPage Divorce Attorney Can Help You Today

Most religious couples can go through a civil divorce without having to think about the religious side of things and how their church, synagogue, or mosque will react. However, for some people, the ceremonial or religious aspects are the most important. For more information, we suggest talking with an experienced Hinsdale divorce attorney at the Law Office of Martoccio & Martoccio. Call us today at 630-920-8855 today to schedule a free consultation.

Sources:

http://www.dph.illinois.gov/data-statistics/vital-statistics/marriage-divorce-statistics

http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/state/illinois/