Table of contents
1. Introductory Profiles. Freedom of the Church and secular state in the post-conciliar ecclesiastical magisterium - 2. The teaching of Benedict XVI between continuity and renewal. Libertas Ecclesiae and its rooting in the dignity of the human person – 3. (continued) The different possible meanings of the secular state. “Positive” secularism and the secularism of “neutrality” – 4. Individual freedom and the “dictatorship of relativism”. Criticism of this conception - 5. Secularism and the public dimension of religion - 6. Duty of the political community to guarantee and respect the libertas Ecclesiae. Faculties and limitations related to the exercise of this right by the ecclesial community. Reconciliation of the presence of the Church in public life to the action of Catholic citizens and leading role of the hierarchical structure - 7. The intervention of the ecclesiastical magisterium in public debate. Dignity of the human person and "non-negotiable principles" - 8. Freedom of the faithful in temporal matters and the social doctrine of the Church - 9. Freedom of the Church and "healthy secularism" of the State as indispensable conditions for the lay faithful to be able to fulfill their duties. Insufficiency of the model of the "secular state" and its condemnation - 10. Concluding considerations. Close relationship between the concepts of freedom of the Church and the secularism of the State in the magisterium of Benedict XVI