Secular state and autonomy of the religious confessions. On occasion of a recent sentence of the Colombian Constitutional Court

Abstract

The jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court has continuously defended the autonomy of churches as one of the aspects of the fundamental religious freedom right and the state’s secularity right. Nevertheless, a recent sentence (Colombian Constitutional Court, Sentence T-658, 2013), by resolving the action of protection of a nun against her monastery, the reinstatement of the plaintiff to her community was ordered in order to guarantee her right to a dignified life. The main problematic matters brought up by the sentence include the following: the adequate respect for religious freedom and the effective autonomy of churches and confessions; the limits of the religious freedom right; the role of the confessional code (in particular, the Canon Law) with regard to the State’s right and the way of understanding the secularity principle based on the sentence in question. The article deals with each of these matters and intends to offer alternative criteria for resolving the conflict, compatible with the religious freedom of both people and institutions.