The debate on the legal statute of the Catholic Church in Brazil, in the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defence, on Tuesday (7), demonstrated that there are profound differences regarding the agreement between Brazil and the Holy See, signed by the President of the Republic Lula in November, 2008, in Vatican.

One of the points discussed was the text’s Constitutionality. Several Representatives and the professor of Post-Graduation in Education of University of São Paulo (USP), Roseli Fischmann, invited to the debate, reminded that Brazil is a Secular State and protested some privileges granted to the Catholic Church.

In the researcher's evaluation, the text inhibits the activity of the Parliament, changes the legal relationship of the Brazilian State with religions and does not comply with Article 19 of the Constitution.

“The agreement of Brazil with the Holy See is a type of religious-legal alliance and Article 19 provides that it is prohibited to the Union, States, Municipalities and Federal District to sign alliances with religions or their representatives”, emphasized Roseli Fischmann.

Agreement issues
The text, which needs the Congress approval to take effect, ensures tax immunity to ecclesiastical authorities, reinforces the non-existence of employment between religious and Catholic institutions and deals with the acting of Catholic schools, besides providing issues related to religious education and marriage.

Regarding the privileges granted to the Catholic religion the text looks forward to emphasize that they must comply with the Constitution and applicable laws, besides being extended to other religious faiths, in an isonomic way.

Secular perspective
The Chief Minister of Division Europa I of the Foreign Office, Cláudio Raja Gabaglia Lins, assured that the agreement is in full compliance with the Constitution and only summarizes what is already provided by the Brazilian legislation. According to Lins, the agreement, which was intensively debated and negotiated between the parties, is with the Holy See and not with the Catholic religion.

“It is an agreement with a State endowed with international legal personality, with a sovereignty, in order to discuss proceeding aspects of the Catholic Church in different areas. All the bodies involved were carefully focused on the Constitution and the Brazilian legislation, within a Secular perspective, with absolute respect to religions, without any mood to cause privileges", he emphasized.

The reporter of the matter in the Committee, the Representative Bonifácio de Andrada (PSDB-MG), has already presented an assent to the approval of the agreement and believes that other religions are also going to be benefited by the text.

“This agreement has been providing guarantees to other religious faiths and, because of that, it represents a great effort on religious freedom in Brazil. I do not see any unconstitutionality, as well as the government itself had not identified any, by means of researches that were carried out in several areas”, said the Representative.

The agreement between Brazil and Vatican, sent by the Executive as message 134/09, is being processed under emergency conditions and will still be assessed in Education and Culture, Labor, Administration, Public Service, Constitution, Justice and Citizenship committees.

Reporting – Rejane Xavier
Editing – Simone Ravazzolli
Translation - Grupo Solucion/Thiago Capatti