The Urgency of the Model of Integrative Mediation in the Church as a Solution to the Dual Status of Divorce among Catholics

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the dualism of divorce status experienced by Catholics in Indonesia as a consequence of the normative conflict between national marriage law and Catholic Canon Law, as well as to formulate an integrative mediation model through Church institutions as a mechanism for harmonizing the two legal regimes. This normative legal research employs both statutory and conceptual approaches. The analysis is conducted through the examination of primary legal materials, including Law Number 1 of 1974 on Marriage, Government Regulation Number 9 of 1975, and the Code of Canon Law, supported by secondary legal materials from scholarly literature. Legal materials are analyzed using systematic and interdisciplinary interpretation methods. The findings reveal that the coexistence of civil divorce recognition under Article 38 of the Marriage Law and the principle of the absolute indissolubility of marriage under Canon 1141 generates a condition of legal dualism that reflects the characteristics of weak legal pluralism. This dualism gives rise to substantive legal uncertainty, ambiguity in personal status, restrictions on the civil right to remarry, and limitations on the exercise of religious rights within the Catholic Church. Consequently, the legal certainty provided by civil courts remains merely formal and administrative, without resolving the broader religious and social implications faced by Catholic divorcees. The study concludes that a holistic procedural reconstruction is necessary through the adoption of an Integrative Church Mediation Model as a pre-litigation mechanism capable of harmonizing civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, thereby ensuring greater legal certainty, justice, and protection for Catholics in a pluralistic legal system.