🙏 Secularism on trial

Brazil, like many modern democracies, describes itself as a secular state. This is not aspirational language; it is written plainly into Article 19 of the Constitution, which bars the government from establishing, subsidizing or maintaining alliances with religious groups.

Historically, secularism was not conceived as an academic luxury so much as a form of damage control. The idea was simple: your faith is your salvation, not my obligation. When that boundary blurs, politics becomes a pulpit, public administration takes on the tone of catechism and the national budget begins to resemble a tithe.

That boundary is now being tested in a case pending before Brazil’s Supreme Court, in which justices are grappling with a deceptively simple question: how far does the right to refuse medical treatment on religious grounds extend — and who bears the cost of that refusal within a public health system?

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