Abstract

ARLETTAZ, Fernando. Theoretical questions about the legal status of religious groups in Argentina. Soc. relig. [online]. 2016, vol.26, n.45, pp.13-43. ISSN 1853-7081.

The Civil Code drafted by Velez Sarsfield recognized the Catholic Church as a "legal person of necessary existence", in accordance with the constitutional system of the Patronato Nacional interpreted in an establishmentarian way. Non-Catholic groups, stigmatized as "dissidents", were qualified as "legal persons of possible existence". The most important reform of the Code, two years after the new statute of Catholicism resulting from the Concordat of 1966, included the Catholic Church among the "public legal persons" and non-Catholic groups among the "private" ones, without changing the substance of the legal regime. The recently adopted Civil Code insists on the public character of the Catholic Church and establishes a special legal figure for other religious communities. This article deals with the theoretical implications of these changes, from a political point of view.

Keywords : Civil Code; Catholic Church; Religious Groups.