Brazil's President Signs Agreement With Vatican

In the Vatican yesterday, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an agreement with the Vatican on the juridical status of the Catholic Church in Brazil. CNS reports that the Vatican will not publish the full text of the agreement until it is ratified by Brazil's Parliament. In general, however, the agreement recognizes the legal status of the Church, its educational degrees and its teaching of religion in the public schools. The agreement also recognizes marriages performed by the Church and assures access of Catholic chaplains to military bases, prisons and hospitals. An innovation in this agreement is its assurance that "other religious confessions" as well as the Catholic Church will be able to teach their tenets in Brazil's schools.