Mr. Dudley to Mr. Hay.

No. 260.]

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith two copies and a translation of a supreme decree of the 9th instant, the purpose of which is to prescribe a mode of legal proof to be followed by those desiring to marry outside the Roman Catholic Church, by availing themselves of the provisions of the civil marriage law of the 23d of December, 1897. The law legalizes civil marriage when both parties to the contract are non-Catholics, and when, one only of the parties being of that church, the ecclesiastical authority refuses to perform the ceremony.

I have, etc.,

Irving B. Dudley.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]

marriages between noncatholics.

Whereas the laws existing np to 1897 only permitted marriages between Catholics, the sole object of the law of December 23d of the same year being the habilitation of non-Catholics.

The said law not containing any provision prescribing the manner of proving the non-Catholicity of the contracting parties, an essential and primary condition of its application.

This, in the execution of the law, has led to discussions and created obstacles the suppression of which is urgent by the prescription of legal and ready means for the previous presentation of the requisite proofs.

Neither has any kind of proceeding been established to facilitate the carrying out of the law in the case of a denial by the ecclesiastical authorities of permission to marry in case of a diversity of creeds.

In exercising the faculty paragraph 5 of article 94 of the constitution confers upon me, I decree:

  • Art. 1. Non-Catholics having recourse to the judicial authorities for the object of contracting matrimony in accordance with the said law, shall accompany their petition with a document probatory of the religion to which they belong.
  • Art. 2. Persons belonging to no religion, or who are able only with great difficulty to produce the required probatory document, shall substitute for the same a sworn written declaration, accompanied with those of at least two persons of well-known standing, residents in the place, testifying to the fact of the petitioners not having been baptized in the Catholic Church.
  • Art. 3. The judge shall personally receive the sworn verbal ratification of the petitioner’s statements and of the witnesses’ declarations, and shall extend the corresponding documents.
  • Art. 4. If the petitioners are unable to present the necessary witnesses at the place where their petition is presented, but give the assurance of the existence of the same either in the Republic, or abroad, the corresponding requisitorial letters shall be extended for the taking of the declarations.
  • Art. 5. Persons petitioning for a civil marriage on account of the ecclesiastical authority having refused to them the dispensation of the impediment offered by a diversity of creeds, shall accompany their petition with an authentic proof (certificate) of the said refusal.

In the case of the petitioners showing the impossibility for them to obtain the required certificate, the judge shall personally demand the same of the competent ecclesiastical authority, and on receipt of the reply shall give the corresponding decree.


  • José J. Loayza.
  • N. de Pierola.