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Status of marriage

Concordat introduced into Polish law a confessional form of civil marriage (art. 10). In consequence, the Family and Guardianship Code has been modified and currently note that: "Marriage is also included, when a man and a woman concluding marriage under the internal law of the church or other religious denomination in the presence of a clergyman will simultaneously declare the marriage is subject to Polish law and the officer of the General Register Office draw up a certificate of a marriage. When those conditions are fulfilled, the marriage shall be considered concluded at the time of the declaration of will in the presence of a clergyman (art. 1 § 2).
Provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply if the ratified international agreement or act concerning relations between State and church or other religious denominations provides the possibility that marriage under the internal law of the church or other religious denominations induces such effects as marriage included before the officer of the General Register Office" (art. 1 § 3).

Currently, the possibilities of confessional form of civil marriage have eleven religious denominations: Catholic Church, Polish Catholic Church, Pentecostal Church, Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession, Seventh Day Adventists Church, Evangelical Reformed Church, Evangelical Methodist Church, Baptist Christians Church, Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Union of Jewish Confessional Communities and Catholic Church of the Mariavites.

In the Polish law, marriage is only a union of a man and woman. Constitution in article 18 determinate that: "marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland". In fact, the couple wishing to enter into marriage can be done in the confessional form of civil marriage or into a civil form of marriage.

D 28 September 2012    AMichał Zawiślak APiotr Stanisz

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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