The article focuses on the legal status of the religiously characterized bodies performing social utility activities, in the light of the constitutional principle of horizontal subsidiarity. A special attention is reserved to the inclusion of religious bodies in the context of the recent Third Sector Code, in order to outline the existence of a significant relationship between the evolution in interpreting both the principle of horizontal subsidiarity (art. 118, par. 4, of Italian Constitution) and the legal concept of the «purpose of religion and worship» (art. 20 of Italian Constitution).