Desde la Dignitatis Humanae hasta hoy en España: la transformación de un Estado confesional en otro laico

Abstract

With the Dignititatis Humanae, the Catholic Church recognizes the religious freedom. At that time, Spain was a confessional State, but after that, it was passed a new Law on religious freedom, in 1967, with a higher tolerance towards religious minorities. It was the beginning of the end for the confessional State, that was theoretically consolidated with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, when it was recognized the freedom of religion, and the State was defined as neutral, because «no religion shall have a state character», and it will not be possible any discrimination by religious reasons. Nevertheless, reality is more complex, because the Spanish legislation distinguishes between religious groups with and without an agreement of cooperation with the State. The public authorities tried to mitigate this situation, recently, with a new tertium genus, the religious groups with an administrative declaration of «notorious settlement» in Spain. De lege ferenda, we defend a «common legal model» for all the religious groups.

Keywords

• Dignitatis Humanae
• end of the confessional State
• religious freedom
• Spain
• tolerance
• España
• fin de la confesionalidad
• libertad religiosa
• tolerancia
• fine dello Stato confessionale
• libertà religiosa
• Spagna
• tolleranza