Religious freedom and the separation between church and state as we know them today were made possible thanks to narratives constructed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, according to Rafael García, a Religion and Civil Society researcher at the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra. The expert organized a workshop on “Religious freedom and the relationship between church and state in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,”which analyzed the aforementioned narratives.

According to Rafael García, these narratives managed to mediate between two existing narratives in these centuries, namely, the liberal one, "which affirmed the incompatibility between Catholicism and religious freedom" and the "Catholic confessional counter-narrative that saw religious freedom as a threat to religion," he explains.

As he argues, a "third way" emerged among Christian authors with a liberal tendency, such as Tocqueville, who "interpreted the dominant liberal narrative differently to show the compatibility between Catholicism and religious freedom."

Participants analyzed nineteenth and twentieth-century discourse in defense of religious freedom from different parts of Europe and America, such as Spain, France, the United States and Mexico. "In countries like Mexico, Catholics defended religious freedom against governments that denied it," García explains.

Some of the presentations at the workshop included, "Religious freedom in Mexico: Conflicts in Narrative" from Carmen Alejos; "Christian civilization and the Muslim world in Tocqueville," which Rafael Garcia gave; and "Conflict in Catholic narratives onreligious freedom: Spain and the United States" from Rafael Escobedo.

Religion, history and current affairs

"At present, there are a huge variety of institutional solutions in Europe," the researcher notes, "but all countries recognize religious freedom as a right that must be guaranteed." Thus, despite the separation between church and state, some states are considered confessional and "compatible with a regime of religious tolerance," for example England.

The separation of politics and religion has not minimized the impact of different religions on Western society and Europe continues to be influenced by its Christian roots. This is reflected in the public celebration of religious festivities, the study of religion in public schools and the social impact of Church-related associations,such as "Caritas," Garcia notes.

This research is part ofa subproject entitled, “Narratives in conflict: Religious freedom and the relationship between church and state in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,” within the Religion and Civil Society project. It receives funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy (Ref. DER2016-76619-P).