Administrative Case Law on Change of Building Use for Worship Purposes (Reflections arising from the Council of State, Section III, Judgment 9 December 2024, No. 9823)

Abstract

The practice of changing the designated use of buildings for religious purposes highlights the tensions between religious freedom and public power. Administrative case law on this subject seeks to balance two needs, neither of which can be entirely sacrificed: the exercise of worship, particularly by religious minorities, and the building controls necessary for the good governance of the territory. The established interpretive approach, centered on a concrete assessment of the impact on the urban load, appears prima facie to promote the exercise of worship. Starting from the Seregno case, this article retraces the principles articulated by the Constitutional Court in order to examine how effectively this interpretive framework implements the system of constitutional guarantees. What emerges is still an incomplete protection: the balancing continues to privilege urban-planning requirements, confining worship to the private sphere alone.