INCIDENCIA JURíDICA DE LA LAICIDAD DEL ESTADO EN LA SOCIEDAD PLURAL

laity, pluralism and freedom are basic and key categories when joint the relationship or relationships that the state has to keep with the religious phenomenon, in its more full meaning, just as it appears in our democratic western societies. the laity, in this reflection, is assumed as a characteristic, category, attitude or limit to the state and its own activity; pluralism as a characteristic is considered an essential property of our contemporary societies and as citizen value. it is expected in this contribution to clarify the relationship between the laity of the states and the open and plural societies, as an essential characteristic of the just society. democratic societies, as such, are neither lay nor denominational, but plurals and free, both from the religious point of view as ideological. only in the totalitarianisms, from roman and eastern empires until our days, fits to pose the existence of denominational, unitary, religious character, antireligious or ideological societies. the laity of the state is, above all, guarantee for development and promotion of the social plurality. only then, justice in a non discriminatory freedom can be achieved. for this reason, state apparatus should abstain of any intervention to promote a certain ideology or religious ideal, and to avoid, in logical consequence, that the laity becomes ideology of state or a first determinant of the society.