In Pursuit of Secularism: the Gymkhana of the Agreements with the Holy See

Abstract

Thirty-five years after its enactment, there is still not academic or judicial consensus regarding the model of Church and State relationship that the Spanish Constitution draws, despite having been defined by the Constitutional Court, although not to the liking of everybody. The reason of this controversy lies in the Agreements with the Holy See currently in force, which, as the author intends to demonstrate, contain, from a material point of view, important violations of the secularism principle, violations that cannot be remedied without the consent of the Catholic Church since, from a formal point of view, the Agreements equate with international treaties. In the face of this reality, some future solutions to overcome the current impasse and make the system fit into the constitutional framework are proposed.