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 in the Greek laikós, which means “of the people.” It was originally used in reference to the common faithful Christians, not members of the clergy. It was not until the second part of the 19th century that the term lay (laïque in French, laico in Spanish) began to describe the person, sphere, or activity different, detached, or autonomous from the religious. Until that moment, even in Latin countries such as France, Italy, and Spain, the word used for that purpose was secularization. For example, the secularization of the cemeteries removed the control of burials from the church and placed it in the hands of civil government.

The use of the word lay and its derived words (laicity, laicization), in the sense of the secularization of political institutions, took place in the context of the Latin continental European countries and in other latitudes such as Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Due to the hegemonic presence of the Catholic Church in those countries and its reluctance in the 19th century to accept the principle of separation and the loss of influence in public affairs, the laicization of the state became a political combat of anticlerical content. This was called laicism. Although this conflict decreased in intensity in the past century, due to different stances concerning the role of the churches in the shaping of legislation and public affairs, the question still has an impact on the political debate as well as on the understanding and definition of the concepts of lay, laicity, laicism, and laicization.

The process of laicization of the state, which began with the religious wars of the 16th century, intensified in the second part of the 19th century with the establishment of the free, public, and nonreligious school. In France, the école laïque developed in the Third Republic. In 1871, after a decision concerning the establishment of nonreli-gious or confessional public education, the French created the neologism laicity (laïcité), which began to be used as a synonym of secularity—for example, the laicity of education, meaning the establishment [Page 686]of a public school without religious instruction, or the laicity of the state, meaning the creation of legislation and public policies based on secular arguments, not on religious bases.

In sum, it can be said that the term laicization is mainly used in the context of Latin countries and applied mainly to the domain of the state, although it was extended to other areas, such as education or medicine, that were previously controlled or were in the hands of religious institutions and, being institutionalized under the influence of the state, became a sphere autonomous from religion. For the same reason, the experience of laicization of the public sphere goes beyond Latin countries and can be applied to other cultural areas.

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