The Holy See and the Spanish Government, continuing with revision of the current Concordat between the two Parties, begun with the Agreement signed on 28 July 1976, whose instruments of ratification were interchanged on 20 August of the same year, conclude the following AGREEMENT
I. 1. The Spanish State recognizes the right of the Catholic church to carry out its apostolic mission and guarantees the church free and public exercise of those activities inherent to it, especially worship, jurisdiction and teaching. 2. The Church is free to establish its own organization. In particular, it may create, modify or suppress Dioceses, Parishes and other territorial circumscriptions, which shall be considered legal under civil law at the time they acquire legality under canon law and this is notified to the State´s competent agencies. The Church may also establish, confirm and suppress Orders, Religious Congregations, other religious institutions, other Ecclesiastical Institutions and Organizations. No part of Spanish Territory shall be dependent upon the Bishop whose seat is in an area subject to the sovereignty of another State, and no Diocese or Spanish territorial district shall include territorial areas subject to a foreign sovereignty. The principality of Andorra will continue to pertain to the Diocese of Urgel. 3. The State recognizes the civil legal nature of the Spanish Episcopal Assembly, in accordance with the Statutes approved by the Holy See. 4. The State recognizes the civil legal nature and full capacity to act of the Orders, Religious Congregations and other religious institutions and their Provincials, Monasteries and Convents, and that of other religious Organizations and Foundations that have this status at the time at which this Agreement goes into effect. The Orders, Religious Congregations and other religious institutions and their Provincials, Monasteries and Convents that, having been established under canon law at that date, are not considered legal under civil law, and those established in accordance with canon law in the future, shall acquire civil legality upon registration at the corresponding State Registry Office, by virtue of an authentic document stating the establishment, purpose, identification, representative bodies, rules of operation and faculties of said agencies. For the purpose of determining the extent of and limitations to their capacity to act and, therefore, to dispose of their goods, they shall be governed by canon law, which will act in this case as statutory law. The Associations and other religious Organizations and Foundations that, having been established under canon law at the date on which this Agreement goes into effect, but that are considered legal under civil law, and those established by the competent Ecclesiastical Authority in accordance with canon law in the future, may acquire civil legality, and subject to stipulations in the State´s regulations, upon registration at the corresponding Registry, by virtue of an authentic document stating the establishment, purpose, rules of operation and faculties of said agencies. 5. Churches are guaranteed inviolability according to the Law. They may not be demolished unless they are no longer consecrated. In the case of necessary expropriation, the competent Church Authority shall first be heard. 6. The State shall respect and protect the inviolability of archives, registers and other documents belonging to the Spanish Episcopal Conference, to the episcopal Curiae, the Curiae of the Superiors of religious Orders and Congregations, Parishes and other church Institutions and Organizations.
II. The Holy See may freely promulgate and publish any resolutions referring to the governing of the Church and may freely communicate with prelates, the clergy and the faithful, as they may with the Holy See. Ordinaries and other church Authorities shall have the same rights with respect to the clergy and the faithful.
III. The State recognizes Sunday as a holiday. Other religious activities to be recognized as holidays shall be decided by common consent.
IV. 1. The State recognizes and guarantees the exercise of the right of religious attendance of those citizens in prisons, hospitals, sanatoriums, orphanages and similar centers, both private and public. 2. Catholic religious attendance and pastoral activities of priests and members of religious orders in the above-mentioned centers that are public shall be regulated by common consent of the competent authorities of the Church and the State. In any case, the right to religious freedom and due respect for religious and ethical principles shall be safeguarded.
V. 1. The Church may carry out its own charitable or welfare activities. Those Institutions or Organizations of a charitable or welfare nature that are part of the Church or dependent upon it shall be run according to the Church´s statutory regulations and shall have the same rights and benefits as those organizations classified as private charities. 2. The Church and the State may, by common consent, establish the bases for appropriate cooperation between charitable or welfare activities carried out by their respective institutions.
VI. 1. The State recognizes the civil effects of marriages celebrated according to Canon Law. Canon marriage is considered legal under civil law from the moment of the celebration. For full recognition of these effects, the marriage must be registered in the Civil Registry; this may be done with the presentation of the church certificate of the existence of the marriage. 2. The marriage partners, in accordance with the provisions of Canon Law, may go to the Ecclesiastical Courts to request a declaration of annulment or to request a pontifical decision concerning a valid but unconsummated marriage. By request of either of the parties, said ecclesiastical resolutions shall be considered valid under civil law if declared in compliance with State Law by sentence of the competent Civil Court. 3. The Holy See reaffirms the permanent value of its doctrine concerning marriage and reminds those who celebrate marriage in accordance with canon law of the serious obligation they assume to abide by the canon rules regulating marriage and, especially, to respect their essential meaning.
VII. The Holy See and the Spanish Government shall proceed by common consent in the resolution of any doubts or difficulties that may arise in the interpretation or application of any clause of this Agreement, guided by the principles informing it.
VIII. The following articles are hereby repealed: Articles I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VIII, IX, X (and the Agreement of 16 July 1946), XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XVII, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXV and XXXVI of the Concordat currently in effect and the Final Protocol, in relation to articles I, II, XXIII, XXV. However, the rights acquired by those persons affected by the repeal of Article XXV and the corresponding Final Protocol shall be respected.
TEMPORARY PROVISIONS
First. The Orders, religious Congregations and other religious Organizations, their provincials, convents and monasteries and the Associations and other religious Organizations or Foundations whose legal character and full capacity to act has been recognized by the State, should register in the corresponding State Registry as soon as possible. Three years after this Agreement comes into effect in Spain, they may only justify their legal nature by means of a certificate from said registry, although the registration may take place at any time.
Second. Those causes pending in the Ecclesiastical Courts when this Agreement takes effect in Spain, shall continue to be handled by them, and the judgements shall be effective under civil law, in accordance with that decreed in Article XXIV of the Concordat of 1953.
FINAL PROTOCOL
In relation to Article VI.1:
Immediately after the celebration of a religious marriage, the priest officiating the ceremony shall give the spouses the ecclesiastical certification with the information required for registration in the Civil Registry. And, in any case, the parish priest in whose parish the marriage was celebrated shall, within a period of five days, transmit to the person in charge of the corresponding Civil Registry, the Record of the religious marriage for due registration, in case this has not already been carried out at the request of the interested parties. It is the responsibility of the State to protect those rights which, while the marriage has not been registered, are acquired in good faith by third persons. This Agreement, the texts of which in both Spanish and Italian are equally valid, shall go into effect upon the interchange of the instruments of ratification. |
