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Originally Posted by danimal
On a related note, my understanding is that the church has been supportive of legislation in south america to make divorce easier. Apparently the laws make it so difficult to divorce that most split-up couples are never divorced -- they move on and end up moving in with another person that they can never legally marry, and thus can't be baptized.
So apparently relaxing divorce laws can strengthen marriage.
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This is the same in Italy. Almost all marriages in Italy are performed by Catholic Priest. If a couple wants a religious ceremony but it is not performed by a Catholic priest, they are encouraged to marry civilly first, in order to ensure that the marriage is legal. It is almost impossible to get a divorce after a Catholic wedding in Italy, so most couple split up and live with their partner. And like in So. America, those who want to be baptized are unable to do so until they can divorce their first spouse and legally marry their live-in partner, which is pretty much impossible.