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- The aim of this essay is to argue a new thesis about the conception of the rightful autonomy of the political or civil sphere from that of religion and the Church. On the one hand, the relations between politics and religion are decided following the principle of autonomy, understood as a theoretical and practical affirmation of the autonomy of both spheres; autonomy supported by reciprocal collaboration in the service of the person. The secular State is a State of reason, grounded on rights and duties and on relations that do not oppose to religion, recognised as one of the multiple reality that constitute the public sphere. On the other hand, it is important to discern two different propositions of autonomy in the modern context. The first is marked with a hostile openness towards religion and a second, which is attentive to dialogue with it. The reason for this dichotomy has been caused by misunderstanding democratic reality, which are possible to solve with a double discernment: in what sense are all the people the foundation of political sovereignty? And which is the democratic value of ethic pluralism? Popular sovereignty becomes real when there is an effective respect of the inviolable nature of a several goods of the human person, beyond the different interests of the State or of the majority. Pluralism, when it is severed from the ethic of indifference and it is not relegated to private life, is another barrier in the face of the ambition of the State.Keywords: laicality, laicism, democracy, sovereignty, pluralism