Concordat of 1854

The Concordat between the Holy See and the President of the Republic of Guatemala (Spanish: Concordato entre la Santa Sede y el Presidente de la República de Guatemala), referred to colloquially as the Concordat of 1854 (Spanish: Concordato de 1854), was a concordat between Rafael Carrera, President of Guatemala, and the Holy See, which was signed in 1852 and ratified by both parties in 1854.

As a result of the concordat, Guatemala gave the education of Guatemalan people to regular orders Catholic Church, committed to respect ecclesiastical property and monasteries, imposed mandatory tithing and allowed the bishops to censor what was published in the country; in return, Guatemala received dispensations for the members of the army, allowed those who had acquired the properties that the Liberals had expropriated the Church in 1829 to keep those properties, perceived taxes generated by the properties of the Church, and had the right to judge certain crimes committed by clergy under Guatemalan law.

[1] The concordat was designed by Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol and reestablished the relationship between Church and State in Guatemala.

The concordat was originally signed in Rome on 7 October 1852 by Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, Cardinal Secretary of State, and Fernando Lorenzana, minister plenipotentiary of Guatemala before the Holy See.

It consists of twenty nine items, written in Latin and Spanish, which are summarized as follows: