EUROPE/SPAIN - Disappointment and concern in the local Church and Pro-Family Associations after the approval of a proposed Bill to change the country’s Civil Code with regard of divorce

Tuesday, 21 September 2004

Madrid (Fides Service) - The Church in Spain is deeply distressed after the Spanish cabinet approved a bill to propose changes in Civil Law with regard to divorce. The Bill suppresses the former period of one year of separation and also the obligation to present reasons to justify the demand to dissolve the marriage bond.
In a statement with the title “With regard to a bill to change the Civil Law on separation and divorce”, the Bishops’ Conference voices deep concern and disappointment for the approval of this reform which threatens the stability of the institution of marriage. “The new law - the Bishops say - is based not a correct anthropological understanding of marriage as a fundamental social but rather on an individualist ideology which reduces it to a contract between two people”, it is therefore left to their discretion and depends on their will which can change with time. In this situation a commitment for life is practically impossible since this mentality sees divorce as a right and even a condition for contracting marriage, rendering it unable to face the crisis and difficulties which will inevitably occur”. Far from solving the serious problem of the steady increase in the number of divorces this new law will, “probably lead to even more divorces and more suffering”, the Bishops say.
Speaking to Veritas news agency, Eduardo Hertfelder, President of the Institute for Family Policies (IPF), said “the government has made two political mistakes. First of all by approving a proposed Bill which will prevent the reconciliation of more than 15,000 couples every year (20 - 25% couples come together during the year of separation and 30-35% of separations do not end in divorce; moreover about 10% of separated couples not ask for divorce)”. “The elimination of the period of separation will increase instead of decrease the number of divorces in Spain, it will cause the break up of even more families and besides the proposed Bill was elaborated without the knowledge of Spanish families ” Hertfelder added.
The Spanish Family Forum (FEF) said the bill “implies total contempt for marriage since it treats the marriage bond as something totally lacking any value, it contradicts the seriousness with which people enter marriage and radically opposed to the objective importance of matrimony for society .”
According to Benigno Bersaglio, FEF spokesman, “a contract which can be broken unilaterally after three months of marriage for no other reason than a desire not to keep it, not only has nothing to do with something as serious as marriage, it cannot even be called a contract.” The elimination of the period of separation and reasons “makes marriage the contract less protected by law”.
“In this way divorce may reach the point of being similar to the Islamic unilateral repudiation, it means that the law fails to support marriage which can be broken at the whim of one of the partners. In this way marriage becomes ‘an extremely limited company’” said Rafael Navarro Valls, docent at the faculty of Law at Complutense University in Madrid and secretary general of the Royal Academy Law. (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 21/9/2004; Righe 39, Parole 535)


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