Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

On the 50th anniversary of Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis humanae, this Article briefly studied the reactions that this document provoked in Italian and Spanish doctrine. The analysis considers the topics most important or problematic, especially the changes that the conciliar Declaration introduced in the teaching of the Church, and also its impact on the State Law on Religion, especially in Spain in which following the Declaration, had to be introduced significant changes in the civil status of non-Catholic persons and Churches while maintaining the existing confessional Sate. In more specific issues it is noted that while the Spanish doctrine is interested in matters like matrimonial and religious teaching, the Italian Authors deal with the possible application of the Declaratio within the Church, in particular the obligation of the Magisterium and the canonical crimes against the faith and doctrine.

The subject of this article is the recent change in the law regarding the celebration and dissolution of confessional marriages. Since July 2015, different kinds of marriages have been permitted in Spain in order to honour constitutional principles such as religious freedom, equality and pluralism. People in Spain may enter into civil marriage via a civil or religious process, or into canonical marriage in canonical form. Regardless of the marriage process, identical civil rights are granted on the celebration of the marriage. The religious processes are also substantially affected by the Voluntary Jurisdiction Act, amendments to the Civil Code and the Civil Registration Act. The final result is that Spanish people are allowed to be married by the rite of other religions or churches, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, the Orthodox Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (informally, the Mormon Church). Spanish law likewise fully recognizes canonical marriage, and the complete regulation thereof by ecclesiastical laws, including in relation to absolution. However, the procedures whereby civil rights are granted to ecclesiastical decisions have been profoundly altered by the recent changes in the law.