List of Latin American concordats

 This list is compiled from three principal sources*, (with no guarantees for the completeness of any of them). The date given is when the concordat was signed by the heads of state or their representatives, not when – or if – it was ratified by a legislature. Of course, in the case of a dictator legislative approval may be dispensed with altogether. Another advantage to the Vatican in concluding a concordat with a dictator is that these agreements remain valid, even when there is a return to democratic government — because they are "international treaties". Thus the concordats with Duvalier (Haiti) Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Aramburu and Onganía (Argentina) are still in force, long after their dictatorships have ended.

Concordats were delayed in Latin America, first by the power of the King of Spain, and later by political instability.

Rome's concession of powers was phenomenal. [...] Part of the the reason for its delivery of the American church to the Spanish crown was preciesly that the Indies were a challenge of evangelisation on a scale that Rome could not itself meet, the task had to be delegated: patronato was the cost of doing so. [1]

From the 16th century "His Most Catholic Majesty" exercised control over the Church in his American colonies. "The Patronato Real (Royal Patronage), … gave the crown ample powers over the demarcation, administration, and finances of the American dioceses, including the nomination of bishops."[2]  

At independence, this arrangement was transferred to the new countries as the Patronato Nacional (National Patronage). For its part, the Vatican only began giving diplomatic recognition to Latin American countries in the 1830s and its concordats, which were intended to restrict power of the state enjoyed under the "Patronato Nacional", were negotiated much later, generally after mid-century — if at all.

  There are two traditional concordat hotspots, Columbia and Equador. As usual, these are the legacy of Vatican-friendly heads of state. In Columbia, President Rafael Núñez proclaimed a national "regeneration", brought in an authoritarian new constitution and gave his country its first concordat. [3] In neighbouring Equador, President Garcia Moreno ceded complete control of education to the Church, forbade heretical (non-Catholic) worship and arranged the first concordat for what he called the "Republic of the Sacred Heart". [4]

However, now the Vatican is focussing on Brazil, where "it estimates that it is losing 1% of its faithful to the evangelicals each year in a country that now allegedly has two pastors (usually evangelical ones) for each Catholic priest". [5]

 

Argentina 
28 June 1957  Accord between the Republic of Argentina and the Holy See on Church jurisdiction in the military service and pastoral care in the Armed Forces.
10 October 1966  Accord concerning ecclesiastical organisation.
21 April 1992  Diplomatic Note on modifying the Accord about Church jurisdiction in the military service and pastoral care in the Armed Forces.

Bolivia
4 December 1957  Convention on Missions, Supplement
29 November 1958  Accord  on Church jurisdiction in the military service and pastoral care in the Armed Forces.
1 December 1986  Accord on Chaplaincy in the Military and National Police

Brazil
23 October 1989  Agreement on pastoral care in the Armed Forces
13 November 2008  Agreement between the Federal Republic of Brazil and the Holy See on the legal status of the Catholic Church in Brazil 

Colombia
31 December 1887  Concordat (summary)
20 July 1892  Supplementary Concordat to 1887 Concordat
"In 1898, and following at ten year intervals, supplementary conventions were negotiated establishing the amount the government should appropriate to the Church. " Cf. Mecham, Church and State in Latin America, 132.
1902  Convention (concerning missions)
April 1942  Convention (which modified 1887 Concordat)
1953  Concordat (concerning missions)
12 June 1973  Concordat and Final Protocol (summary)
17/18 July 1974  Exchange of notes for the setting of an end-date for the 1973 Concordat
2 July 1985  Exchange of notes on the 10th anniversary of ratification of the Concordat
20 November 1992  Agreement on modification of the 1973 Concordat

Costa Rica 
7 October 1852  Concordat

Dominican Republic     
March 1884  Convention
16 June 1954  Concordat and Final Protocol
21 January 1958  Accord to regulate pastoral care in the Armed Forces (Vicariato Castrense)
11 May 1990  Supplementary Protocol on the Military Ordinariate (Supplement to the 1958 Accord)

Ecuador
26 September 1862  Concordat
2 March 1881  [New Version of 1862 Concordat (suspended in 1887)]
8 November 1890  Concordat
24 July 1937  Modus vivendi and Supplementary Convention
3 August 1978  Accord concerning pastoral care in the Armed Forces and the National Police
27 January / 6 July 1982  Exchange of Diplomatic Notes on Pastoral Care in Military and Police

El Salvador
11 March 1968  Accord on Church jurisdiction in the military service and pastoral care in the Armed Forces and Security Corps

Guatemala
7 October 1852  Concordat
2 July 1884  Concordat

Haiti
28 March 1860  [first] Concordat 
25 January 1940  Convention
15 August 1966  Protocol relating to Article 4 of the Concordat on the appointment of bishops
8 August 1984  Protocol Renunciation of the right to appoint bishops

Honduras
9 July 1861  Concordat

Nicaragua
2 November 1861  Concordat

Paraguay
26 November 1960  Accord on the Military Vicarship and Supplementary Protocol

Peru
19 July 1980  Accord on matters of mutual interest (Signed by a military government with no ratification by any democratic legislature from 1980 to the present)

San Salvador
22 April 1862  Concordat

Venezuela
26 July 1862  Concordat
6 March 1964  General Accord
24 November 1994  Accord to create a Military Ordinariate 

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 Sources

● For concordats up to 1954: Angelo Mercati, Raccolta di concordati: Su Materie Ecclesiastiche tra la Santa Sede e la Autorita Civili (2 vols.: Citta del Vaticano: Tipografia poligiotta Vaticana, 1954). This is cited in Harold Eugene Davis and Frederic Taylor Peck, Latin American Diplomatic History: An Introduction, Louisiana State University Press, 1977, p. 77, footnote 14. Google print

● For concordats of John Paul II (16 October 1978 - 2 April 2005): I concordati di Giovanni Paolo II
http://www.olir.it/areetematiche/63/index.php

● For concordats 1801-2004: Accordi e Intese tra gli Stati e le Confessioni Religiose (AISCR)
http://wwwnt.unifi.it/concordatiss/Indici/Indice%20Cronologico.html

● For concordats 1950-1999: Raccolta di concordati by Mons. José Tomás Martín de Agar, External Magistrate at the Court of Appeal within the Diocese of Rome. http://www.pusc.it/can/p_martinagar/concordatindice.htm
 

Notes

1. Peter John Bakewell, A History of Latin America, Second edition, 2004, p. 138. Google reprint

2. Luis N. Rivera-Pagán, "A Prophetic Challenge to the Church: The Last Word of Bartolomé de las Casas", lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary, 2003. http://www.lascasas.org/Rivera_Pagan.htm

3. Thomas J. Williford, "Chapter II: Two Competing Nationalisms: Development of the Colombian Political Process to 1930", Armando los espiritus: Political Rhetoric in Colombia on the Eve of La Violencia, 1930-1945, 2005.
http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/ETD-db/available/etd-07222005-085639/unrestricted/WillifordDChap2.pdf

4. William R. Shepherd, "Chapter V. The Age of the Dictators", The Hispanic Nations of the New World, a Chronicle of our Southern Neighbors, Yale University Press, 1919. http://www.cumorah.com/etexts/hispn10.txt

5. Serge Lafitte, "The world’s reconstruction, The Vatican’s strategy", Enjeux internationaux [2006]. http://www.enjeux-internationaux.org/articles/num15/en/vatican.htm

6. Francis McDonagh, "Brazil: New accord between church and state", The Tablet, 21 November 2008.

Brazil and the Vatican have signed an agreement establishing the legal framework for the Catholic Church to operate in Brazil. The agreement was signed by the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, and his Holy See counterpart, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, on 13 November, during a visit to the Vatican by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Brazilian bishops’ conference insisted in a statement that the agreement gives the Church “no privileges” in relation to other religious bodies.

The document, which has not yet been published, covers the Church’s right to create and eliminate dioceses and other religious bodies, gives dioceses and church institutions tax exemption, and allows bishops to invite foreign church personnel to work in their dioceses. It also clarifies the legal status of bodies such as the bishops’ conference, which did not exist in 1890, the year of the Brazilian decree separating Church and State on which the new document is based.

It appears that Brazil has resisted some Vatican demands and insisted on asserting the secular and multicultural character of the state. The clause accepting religious education in schools as a standard but optional subject puts Catholic RE on a par with that of other denominations, and stipulates that “the cultural and religious diversity of Brazil” be respected. The clause on matrimonial judgements by church courts requires them to be tested by the Brazilian courts in the same way as judgements by the divorce courts of other states, so that a Vatican decree of nullity will not have automatic effect in Brazil. On the other hand, the document guarantees “the secrecy of the priestly office, and especially that of sacramental confession”.

The agreement has been under negotiation for a number of years, and the Vatican would have liked it to be signed during the Pope’s visit to Brazil in 2007, but the Brazilian Government refused. The agreement does not come into force until it has been approved by the Brazilian Congress, where it is still likely to face opposition from the powerful Protestant lobby.

 

 

(Last updated 5 December 2008)