El fracasado intento de reconocer el matrimonio religios en la nueva ley chilena de matrimonio civil

Abstract

A new civil marriage law was published in Chile on May 17, 2004, thus replacing a law that had been in force since 1884. The new law introduces significant changes, the most important of which is the law of absolute divorce (divorce a vinculo matrimonii) in its three forms: sanction divorce, mutually agreed divorce and unilateral divorce or repudiation. In an attempt to mitigate the impact of this new legislation on a mainly Catholic society, the possibility of giving civil recognition to religious marriages, following the model of Spanish legislation, was contemplated. There was, however, one important difference -there are no agreements between the State and religious denominations. The final legislation on this issue completely distorted the original idea, so it is possible to say that in Chile there is only one civil marriage, in two modes. The first one is celebrated before civil authorities and the second, having started before a religious authority, must also be concluded by a civil authority. In the latter case, the validity of the marriage begins with the procedures before the civil authority, with complete disregard for any previous religious commitment.