MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chileans can finally divorce.

Roman Catholic Chile, and is spite of strong resistance from the Church, became this Thursday one of the last countries to grant married couples the right to divorce.

The law making divorce legal was introduced last April but only became effective this Thursday and according to Santiago press reports, courts received a substantial number of applications from the moment they opened at 08:00 in the morning.

The law has overwhelming public support with opinion polls consistently showing so since the issue was first addressed by the administration of President Ricardo Lagos.

Under the new law that overrules the 1884 marriage code a couple may divorce a year after separating if the both partners agree to split up. However if one disagrees a divorce is only allowed after three years have elapses.

The Chilean Church which fought against the initiative until the very end warns that the law is a threat to the stability of marriage and the family, insisting that the separation period before a divorce is granted is too short. Over 70% of the Chilean population declares to be Roman Catholic.

President Lagos who all along the Congressional discussion became master of a balancing act described the bill as "a major step forward" in the advancement of a modern Chilean society.

Punta Arenas in the last few months actually experienced a surge in "matrimonial annulment", a civil code figure that allowed Chilean couples to separate alleging "register anomalies", but which did not contemplate any patrimonial compensation for the split parties, usually harming wives.

The new Civil Matrimony that includes divorce proceedings makes compensations favouring the weakest party mandatory.