On Thursday, May 25, the Saeima unanimously supported the amendments to the Civil Law in the second reading, thus allowing marriage according to the rules of godparents.
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Until now, the Civil Code stipulated that if the spouses belong to the Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Old Believer, Methodist, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist or Moses believers (Judaists) denominations and want to get married by a clergyman of their denomination who has the permission of the respective denomination’s leadership, then they are married according to the rules of the respective denomination.
By the decision of the Saeima, the said list is supplemented with gods.
Opposition member Mārcis Jencītis (LPV) expressed objections to the specific amendments to the law, who called for the wording of the law to be preserved or to be supplemented with other denominations in Latvia, such as Pentecostal, Reformed, Evangelical Christians, etc. more than 2000 in the congregation.
Deputy Andrejs Yudins (JV) explained that each case of the denomination should be assessed individually. On the other hand, when justifying the inclusion of the gods in the list of denominations, the deputy referred to the preamble of the Constitution, which emphasizes the Latvian way of life and Christian values.
It follows from the information collected by the Ministry of Justice that in 2020 there were 542 godmen in Latvia. In total, there are 11 congregations and the spiritual staff of the saints – 17 people.
“Encyclopedia of Latvia” states that piety is a specific movement of newly created religion and nationalism that was formed in Latvia in the 20th century. 20-30 years and still exists today.
