L'edilizia di culto tra libertà religiosa e tutela del territorio: il caso Lombardia

The theme of the localization of places of worship has acquired over
time a growing relevance also from the legal point of view, accompanied by a
complexity of its discipline, as demonstrated by the copious administrative and
constitutional jurisprudence that has formed on the subject. Certainly the theme,
and also from this its complexity, substantially affects the rights of equality, the
protection of the different ideological, cultural and religious identities of individuals
and groups, guaranteed by the Constitution that with art. 8 introduced
in our legal system the idea of pluralism, intended to guarantee the different
religious identities, while, at the same time, the art. 19 of the Constitution has
sanctioned the right to profess one’s faith freely and to exercise the cult in public
or in private. The availability of buildings and places of worship to be used for
the celebration of rites is, therefore, a necessary element to effectively ensure not
only the individual, but also the communities of practitioners the free exercise
of their creed. At the same time, the discipline for the construction of these
buildings, in the exercise of the competences on the government of the territory,
is a task to which the administration cannot escape with the criticalities that we
will try to highlight by referring, for the cheapness of the research, only to the
Lombard regional discipline.