Dominican Republic’s 1st non-Catholic, church wedding August 26

Santo Domingo.- Electoral Board (JCE) president Roberto Rosario on Friday said the country’s first-ever non-Catholic church wedding will take place August 26.

The official’s announcement responds to the Protestant and Evangelical leaders’ complaints that the JCE is in a "dead" process as to enforcing Law 198-11which grants legal status to non-Catholic religious nuptials.

Via Twitter, Rosario said since 2011 the JCE has trained 443 non-Catholic pastors, priests, ministers, officials and staff to officiate and register religious marriages in 461 congregations, in order to grant the license. He didn’t specify however, which church will officiate that first wedding on the 28th.

Yesterday Dominican Evangelical Unity (CODUE) president Rev. Fidel Lorenzo Meran complained that despite that 320 pastors of that denomination passed the JCE’s training in April 2012, they’ve yet to be issued a license to marry couples.