Laicization

Laicization is a recent term practically unknown in the English language and commonly used in Latin countries roughly as a synonym of the concept of “secularization.” However, even though its semantic contents and history are diverse, it can be said that both the terms are related in many ways. While secularization has to do with social differentiation, worldliness, privatization of religion, and reconfiguration of beliefs, laicization concerns the process of separation of religion from public affairs to protect freedom of conscience beyond everyone's particular beliefs. In short, it could be said that laicization is the secularization of the state and, in certain ways, of cultural, scientific, and educational institutions insofar as the state extends to those realms.

The term laicization comes from the word lay originating ...