Concordat Watch - Dominican Republic
La Altagracia (Our Lady of the Highest Grace) is the patron saint of the Dominican Republic and wears the colours of its flag. Altagracia, (Tatá for short) is a favourite Dominican name. This painting, brought from Spain in the early 16th century, is said to work miracles and on her feast day on January 21 many Dominicans make a pilgrimage to her basilica in Higuey to pray for these.
In addition to the saints, some Dominicans appeal to curers (curanderos) and witches (brujos), traditions brought from Africa at the time of the slave trade. Curanderos ask the saints which herbs, roots, and other home cures to employ. Witches (brujos) try to drive out the spirits that possess the patient, also with a little help from the saints. They have access to the “spiritual sphere” because of their gracia, and that is exactly what the country’s patron has to the highest degree. Dominican Catholicism can be a “creole” of these two traditions and the image of La Altagracia may be regarded in many different ways.
Political deal lets Vatican in on new Dominican Republic constitution |
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A back-room deal between two politicians is set to make the Dominican Republic the first country to enshrine three current Vatican policies in its new Constitution. One amendment is expected to increase dangerous back-alley abortions and unwanted births in a poor country where more than a third can’t afford enough to eat. But for the Catholic Church it marks a milestone in its programme to promote reproduction at all costs. |
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Acuerdo politico da entrada al Vaticano en la nueva Constitucion de la República Dominicana |
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Un acuerdo a puerta cerrada celebrado el mes pasado entre dos políticos ha encaminado a la República Dominicana a convertirse en el primer país en consagrar tres políticas actuales del Vaticano en su nueva Constitución. Una enmienda dice que “el derecho a la vida es inviolable desde la concepción hasta la muerte”. Los otros dos definen la familia (en lugar del individuo) como la unidad fundamental de la sociedad, y el matrimonio como la unión de un hombre y una mujer. |
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About the Dominican concordats |
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After the various Dominican constitutions became successively more secular, the Vatican checked this evolution through a concordat. In 1954 the dictator Trujillo granted the Church privileges in return for Vatican recognition of his murderous regime. The dictator is now gone but, despite protests, the concordat remains. |
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Dominican Constitution amended in line with Church doctrines |
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On 21 April 2009 constitutional amendments were passed which enshrine key doctrines of the Catholic Church and could limit human rights, especially those of women and gays. The Dominican government has posted the amended constitution online in Spanish. |
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Trujillo’s Concordat (1954) |
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Generalissimo Trujillo got himself a concordat the year after his hero the Spanish Generalissimo Franco did, and his, too, made Catholicism the state religion. The dictator is long gone, but not his concordat: on 22 October 2008 the Dominican Supreme Court ruled that this concordat did not infringe on religious freedom. |
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Military concordat (1958) and Supplement (1990) |
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At the end of this concordat is a 1990 Supplement where – apparently with no negotiation – the Vatican was allowed to place the civilian police under the powerful Military Ordinary, Cardinal Archbishop Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez. |
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Mission agreement with Spanish Church (1958): Excerpts |
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Can anyone locate and send in the complete text of this 1958 agreement with La Obra de Cooperación Sacerdotal Hispanoamericana? It’s called El Patronato Nacional San Rafael, apparently a flattering reference to the dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. |
Source: http://www.concordatwatch.eu/showsite.php?org_id=891
