Mr. Dudley to Mr.
Hay.
Legation of the United States,
Lima, Peru, May 24,
1899.
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.,
[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.
Given at the Government House in
Lima, May 9, 1899.
- José J. Loayza.
- N. de Pierola.
