The state’s attitude towards religious communities in a health crisis: pursuing toward new interpretative approaches?

As a sort of watershed, since 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has deeply altered our ordinary idea of social life. Such an unprecedented health emergency has also raised a serious challenge in terms of fundamental rights and liberties, acting as a stress-test for modern constitutional pluralistic systems. With specific regard to religious freedom, it has revitalized concerns about the “special” role of religion in post-secular democratic societies. Through a comparative analysis, the aim of this paper is to investigate the implications of the pandemic age as an opportunity to reflect on the need to revisit the role of religious organizations within the network of social actors. The paper shows that cooperation among political actors and faith communities can contribute to the implementation of new ways of living together, where all social actors promote shared commitments to common goals with a view to building a more sustainable future.