Usually Pertaining to or representing the interests of the laity; non-clerical; secular.
Most of the European press (and, indeed, most European elites) talk as if Europe must be "laicist," which is the word they use for "aggressively secular," in the manner of the French Revolution. […] It was asked of Buttiglione, and in such an aggressive and unexpected way that many in Italy are saying publicly that this was a deliberate set-up, engineered by laicists in Brussels still determined to "ecraser l'infame" — to erase every vestige of Christian faith — from their new laicist Europe.2004 November 12, Michael Novak, “Italy’s “House of Liberty” cheers for W.”, in National Review, USA, archived from the original on 30 May 2013, retrieved 27 Sep 2013:
Today, we face the wave of secularism which has as its starting point the strict separation of Church and State: a laicist model advocating that the State should be strictly separate from religion which is conceived as belonging exclusively to the private domain.2010 April 17, “Multiculturalism does not mean we have to renounce our beliefs - President Abela”, in Times of Malta, archived from the original on 01 Mar 2026, retrieved 27 Sep 2013:
Thirty years later, with the connivance of the Parti Quebecois, the laicists proceeded to attack Catholic schools by means of the Proulx Report of 1999.2004 April 1, "The cultural disintegration of Catholicism in Quebec" (Google search view), Catholic Insight (retrieved 27 Sept. 2013)
It was asked of Buttiglione, and in such an aggressive and unexpected way that many in Italy are saying publicly that this was a deliberate set-up, engineered by laicists in Brussels still determined to "ecraser l'infame" — to erase every vestige of Christian faith — from their new laicist Europe.2004 November 12, Michael Novak, “Italy’s “House of Liberty” cheers for W.”, in National Review, USA, archived from the original on 30 May 2013: