In a unanimous decision, the Third Panel of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) validated the civil effects of a religious marriage celebrated in 1894, allowing a descendant of the couple to meet the requirements of Italian citizenship.
The trial responds to a request from the couple's great-grandson, who was seeking late marriage registration, carried out in São Paulo, to complete the documentation required by Italy to prove his line of descent.
The process, which was initially denied in the first instance, according to the website Crumbs, was reformed by the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ/SP), and the decision is now corroborated by the STJ.
The previous refusal was based on Decree 181/1890 and the Constitution of 1891, which introduced civil marriage as the only form of union recognized by the Brazilian State after the proclamation of the Republic.
Legal changes
The rapporteur of the case, Justice Nancy Andrighi, highlighted that, although civil marriage was instituted in 1889 to separate the State and the Church, social resistance to the mandatory civil ceremony was significant. At the time, a large part of the population was Catholic and preferred religious marriage.
The gradual acceptance of civil marriage only occurred after the Civil Code of 1916, when religious marriage was still common and widely practiced as a form of formal union.
Andrighi argued that, due to the social and religious context of the time, it is fair to recognize religious marriage for specific purposes, protecting the lineage and the rights of descendants, especially when it comes to proving citizenship.
Registration and qualification
When analyzing the case, the minister pointed out that, according to the current Civil Code, prior qualification allows “any interested party” to register a religious marriage at a registry office, facilitating registration when the spouses have already died, as is the case in this case.
However, she emphasized that the civil recognition granted by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) has a limited objective: "It avoids excessive legal consequences, limiting the civil effects of the couple's religious marriage exclusively to fulfilling the requirement necessary to obtain Italian citizenship."
The decision preserves the rights of descendants without setting a precedent for broad registration of religious marriages prior to the 1916 legislation, maintaining the focus on citizenship documentation.
The process is confidential, with no disclosure of the number.
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