laicist
Etymology
From laic + -ist.
laicist means pertaining to or representing the interests of the laity; non-clerical; secular. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “laicist” is a great word
LAICIST — [Adjective] Pertaining to or advocating the active exclusion of religious influence and clerical power from public affairs and institutions. From laic (from Old French lai, from Late Latin laicus, from Greek laikos, meaning "of the people, lay") + -ist (agent suffix). Unlike "secular," which denotes a neutral separation of spheres, or "laical," which merely denotes relation to the laity, laicist implies a programmatic, often antagonistic, policy of removal. It is the cold marble of a courthouse stripped of symbols, the textbook revised to silence ancient voices, and the public square deliberately rendered a theological vacuum—a political project that constructs civic peace as an architecture of silence.
adj
- 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 t”
noun
- A supporter of laicism; a secularist.“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.”