Chilean hierarchy steps up fight against divorce.

WHILE CHILE HAS TAKEN A step closer towards legalizing divorce, the church hierarchy has indicated that it will not end its fight against the bill. Final passage of the bill will leave only two countries, Malta and the Philippines, where divorce will still be illegal. The bill may become law in early 2004, and was finally passed after six years of struggle, despite polls consistently showing that up to 70 percent of Chileans support an easing of the divorce law.

The bill still presents many problems, especially related to the waiting periods involved, in order to get divorced by mutual consent, couples will have to wait three years, but if the divorce is contested, the waiting period rises to five years. However, if one of the petitioners can show that the other is, for example, gay or an alcoholic, they will be able to get a divorce much more quickly.

The hierarchy of the Catholic church fought the bill through parliament and is expected to lobby heavily before it is signed into law. The church urged adoption of long waiting periods and wants Chile's Catholics, before they marry, to be offered a chance to sign a legally binding pledge rejecting divorce. "Everything should be done to avoid this rupture," said the Rev. Jaime Fernandez, the head of the church's Vicarate for the Family in Chile.

Until now, wealthy Chileans have sought annulments, available through the courts, which decree that the marriage never existed. Some 6,000 annulments take place each year and President Ricardo Lagos and his wife both got annulments of their previous marriages. Reformers say this system is demeaning and discriminates against the poor who can't afford a lawyer. Others merely choose not to marry--as evidenced by the number of children born to unmarried parents, which rose from 23 percent in 1990 to 39 percent in 2001. Ironically, the new law may block access to the widely-used annulment process, thereby making it more difficult to separate from one's partner.

During its campaign against the bill, the church sponsored television advertisements claiming that children from broken marriages are more likely to use drugs, break the law and commit suicide. However, the hierarchy pulled the ads after Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, Archbishop of Santiago, acknowledged that the ad had generated strong criticism in the local media, and may have made some children of separated couples feel bad. "We have to take seriously that they have felt stigmatized. So I believe it is better to discontinue airing the statistical portion of the campaign," he said.