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09-29-2003, 12:36 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/29/international/americas/29CHIL.html?th
Chile Inches Toward a Law That Would Make Divorce Legal
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: September 29, 2003
ANTIAGO, Chile — This is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that still prohibits divorce. But after a 120-year battle, Chile is on the threshold of approving a law to change that, even though the result may carry so many qualifications and preconditions that the process of ending a marriage could become even more complex.
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Opponents, led by the Roman Catholic Church and its allies in the main right-wing party in this nation of 15 million people, are fighting to have the bill include compulsory mediation, waiting periods of up to five years and no possibility of divorce unless both partners want it. In the name of human rights and family values, they are also demanding that couples be allowed to choose marriage with a "no divorce" option.
"Things are getting a bit complicated, and some of these features are going to create problems," said MarÃ*a Antonieta Saá, a member of Congress who introduced the legislation in 1997. "But in the end, I think we will be able to pass a quite reasonable bill that will finally give people in Chile an honest and civilized way to terminate a marriage."
Opinion polls indicate that 70 percent of Chileans favor legalizing divorce. But the church hierarchy has been conducting an intense campaign that includes lobbying members of Congress, especially those from the centrist Christian Democratic Party, and hinting about excommunication.
"What should not be done is to opt for solutions that imply the destruction of the notion of the family," Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, the archbishop of Santiago, wrote in a pastoral letter called "Let No Man Tear Asunder," issued in June. "Many countries have done precisely that," he added, but "their experience demonstrates that introducing divorce is not the right road."
After Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship ended in 1990, four unsuccessful attempts were made in this socially conservative nation to give the Civil Marriage Code its first major overhaul since the 1880's. The lower house of Congress finally approved a divorce bill in 1997, and after more than five years of hesitation, the Senate voted last month, 33 to 13, to take up a committee's recommendation in favor of the bill.
In an interview here, a legal adviser to the national conference of Catholic bishops, Jorge Morales Retamal, said church leaders were resigned to losing the battle. Their focus now, he said, is to mitigate the damage and to ensure that the law incorporates provisions that they want, like civil recognition of religious weddings and the "no divorce" option, which the law's authors strongly oppose.
"If you say you respect freedom of religion, why shouldn't the law let us marry for life if that is what we desire?" Mr. Morales said. "It's an insurmountable contradiction."
In the absence of divorce, Chileans have traditionally resorted to subterfuge to get out of unhappy marriages, including women who seek to be declared widows after their husbands leave them. The most popular tool, though, is civil annulment, which requires a couple to go to a court and say their marriage violated the law — for instance, that neither of them lived in the jurisdiction where they wed.
Witnesses to a wedding have also been known to misspell their names or give an incorrect address so that the couple will have grounds for an annulment. While some judges refuse to hear such cases out of religious convictions, most rule that the marriage never formally existed. More than 5,000 annulments are granted annually. Beneficiaries include President Ricardo Lagos and even some legislators who have expressed doubts about the divorce bill.
Some supporters of divorce contend that annulment discriminates against poor or uneducated couples who cannot afford lawyers, and, indeed, the beneficiaries are overwhelmingly from the middle and upper classes.
Church leaders seeking to have an effect on the new law want to broaden the grounds for annulment, though, which could have the effect of making an annulment quicker and easier to obtain than a divorce.
"There are people who are saying that with all the obstacles they are trying to place on this law, we'd be better off with no divorce and continue with annulment," said Rosalba Todaro, a researcher at the Center for Women's Studies here. "I don't agree, but since the Senate is more conservative than the House, there is a risk that the final result will be something quite different from what we have seen."
Even so, the authorities are bracing for a deluge of divorce petitions once the law goes into effect, which is expected to happen next year. "There are thousands of couples who have been separated for years and want to marry again but can't," said Ms. Saá, the congresswoman. "I think there is going to be an avalanche."
Opponents of divorce agree and contend that a divorce law will damage the country's social fabric. They predict increases in psychological problems for children, prostitution, homosexuality and drug use.
"Make no mistake, this is not a law that will benefit family life in any way," said Flavio Angelini, a leader of the Casa de la Familia Foundation, a conservative Roman Catholic lay group. "All this is being done in the name of dressing the country with the image of modernity, but it's going to allow people to destroy a marriage on a whim and will produce a lowering of values."
But proponents of the law say the absence of divorce has also produced severe social distortions. The number of marriages recorded has sharply dropped since the return of democracy in 1990, to just over 60,000 annually from more than 100,000, and nearly half of all children here are now born to unmarried couples.
"With no divorce, people don't want to get married," said Ximena Diaz, director of the Center for Women's Studies. "It's going to be interesting to see what happens now."
Chile Inches Toward a Law That Would Make Divorce Legal
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: September 29, 2003
ANTIAGO, Chile — This is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that still prohibits divorce. But after a 120-year battle, Chile is on the threshold of approving a law to change that, even though the result may carry so many qualifications and preconditions that the process of ending a marriage could become even more complex.
Advertisement
Opponents, led by the Roman Catholic Church and its allies in the main right-wing party in this nation of 15 million people, are fighting to have the bill include compulsory mediation, waiting periods of up to five years and no possibility of divorce unless both partners want it. In the name of human rights and family values, they are also demanding that couples be allowed to choose marriage with a "no divorce" option.
"Things are getting a bit complicated, and some of these features are going to create problems," said MarÃ*a Antonieta Saá, a member of Congress who introduced the legislation in 1997. "But in the end, I think we will be able to pass a quite reasonable bill that will finally give people in Chile an honest and civilized way to terminate a marriage."
Opinion polls indicate that 70 percent of Chileans favor legalizing divorce. But the church hierarchy has been conducting an intense campaign that includes lobbying members of Congress, especially those from the centrist Christian Democratic Party, and hinting about excommunication.
"What should not be done is to opt for solutions that imply the destruction of the notion of the family," Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, the archbishop of Santiago, wrote in a pastoral letter called "Let No Man Tear Asunder," issued in June. "Many countries have done precisely that," he added, but "their experience demonstrates that introducing divorce is not the right road."
After Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship ended in 1990, four unsuccessful attempts were made in this socially conservative nation to give the Civil Marriage Code its first major overhaul since the 1880's. The lower house of Congress finally approved a divorce bill in 1997, and after more than five years of hesitation, the Senate voted last month, 33 to 13, to take up a committee's recommendation in favor of the bill.
In an interview here, a legal adviser to the national conference of Catholic bishops, Jorge Morales Retamal, said church leaders were resigned to losing the battle. Their focus now, he said, is to mitigate the damage and to ensure that the law incorporates provisions that they want, like civil recognition of religious weddings and the "no divorce" option, which the law's authors strongly oppose.
"If you say you respect freedom of religion, why shouldn't the law let us marry for life if that is what we desire?" Mr. Morales said. "It's an insurmountable contradiction."
In the absence of divorce, Chileans have traditionally resorted to subterfuge to get out of unhappy marriages, including women who seek to be declared widows after their husbands leave them. The most popular tool, though, is civil annulment, which requires a couple to go to a court and say their marriage violated the law — for instance, that neither of them lived in the jurisdiction where they wed.
Witnesses to a wedding have also been known to misspell their names or give an incorrect address so that the couple will have grounds for an annulment. While some judges refuse to hear such cases out of religious convictions, most rule that the marriage never formally existed. More than 5,000 annulments are granted annually. Beneficiaries include President Ricardo Lagos and even some legislators who have expressed doubts about the divorce bill.
Some supporters of divorce contend that annulment discriminates against poor or uneducated couples who cannot afford lawyers, and, indeed, the beneficiaries are overwhelmingly from the middle and upper classes.
Church leaders seeking to have an effect on the new law want to broaden the grounds for annulment, though, which could have the effect of making an annulment quicker and easier to obtain than a divorce.
"There are people who are saying that with all the obstacles they are trying to place on this law, we'd be better off with no divorce and continue with annulment," said Rosalba Todaro, a researcher at the Center for Women's Studies here. "I don't agree, but since the Senate is more conservative than the House, there is a risk that the final result will be something quite different from what we have seen."
Even so, the authorities are bracing for a deluge of divorce petitions once the law goes into effect, which is expected to happen next year. "There are thousands of couples who have been separated for years and want to marry again but can't," said Ms. Saá, the congresswoman. "I think there is going to be an avalanche."
Opponents of divorce agree and contend that a divorce law will damage the country's social fabric. They predict increases in psychological problems for children, prostitution, homosexuality and drug use.
"Make no mistake, this is not a law that will benefit family life in any way," said Flavio Angelini, a leader of the Casa de la Familia Foundation, a conservative Roman Catholic lay group. "All this is being done in the name of dressing the country with the image of modernity, but it's going to allow people to destroy a marriage on a whim and will produce a lowering of values."
But proponents of the law say the absence of divorce has also produced severe social distortions. The number of marriages recorded has sharply dropped since the return of democracy in 1990, to just over 60,000 annually from more than 100,000, and nearly half of all children here are now born to unmarried couples.
"With no divorce, people don't want to get married," said Ximena Diaz, director of the Center for Women's Studies. "It's going to be interesting to see what happens now."