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The purpose of this paper is to explore the registration of real estate used for worship or religious purposes in the Spanish Property Register. The discussion focuses on properties belonging to the Catholic Church, which are registered through the special procedure set out in article 206 of the Ley Hipotecaria (Spanish Real Estate Law), as well as on the enrolment of structural modifications made or added to the registered property. Given that properties used for worship or religious purposes have special characteristics, they are governed by a specific legal framework which must be recorded in the Property Register, so as to ensure proper opposability by third parties. Thus, the argument here is that the Register must also record the cultural/religious function of a given property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article 206 of the Spanish Mortgage Act provides a fast, cheap and easy way for the first registration of immovable properties belonging to the Catholic Church. However, a number of doubts have been raised concerning the compatibility of this provision with Articles 14 and 16 of the Spanish Constitution. This paper starts from the canons of construction of the rules contained in Article 3.1 of the Spanish Civil Code in order to argue the full constitutionality of Article 206 of the Mortgage Act; some practical issues that may arise when the Catholic Church registers an immovable property are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]