📅 Appeals Court Vacates Divorce Custody Order That Conflicts with Children’s Church Schedule

The Appeals Court has vacated a family court custody order that failed to consider and accommodate the children’s church schedule.

Prior to the order, the children attended Catholic mass with their father on Saturdays at 4pm or on Sunday mornings.  During court proceedings, both father and mother expressed their desire to have their two sons raised in the Catholic faith.  They also acknowledged that only the father attended church on a regular basis.

Despite this, a family court judge issued an order granting primary custody to the mother and scheduling her “parenting time” from Saturday at 4pm to Thursday at 4pm.

The father appealed the ruling and the Appeals Court vacated the order.

According to the Appeals Court,

 Religion is one of the many relevant factors that a judge considers in making a custody determination based on the best interests of the children. See Opinion of the Justices to the Senate, 427 Mass. 1201, 1204 & n.2 (1998). Where, as here, the parties have shared legal custody, both parents are responsible for and involved in making major decisions about the children’s welfare, including their religious development. See G. L. c. 208, § 31.

In the present case,

The judge’s findings do not address the parties’ shared view that the father should continue bringing the children to Mass, nor is there any basis apparent in the judge’s findings for declining to adopt it.6 We therefore cannot ascertain whether the judge, in fashioning the parenting schedule, considered the children’s religious development as a factor relevant to determining their best interest.

Accordingly, the justices vacated the custody arrangement and remanded the case to family court for further proceedings consistent with their ruling.

To read the full opinion, click the document below.