The article examines the process of secularisation in Colombia from a case study of the liberal educational reform of 1870. It discusses theoretically the versatility of the concept of secularisation and the teleologies of modernity that postulated it as a future destiny. It concludes by arguing a general hypothesis on the structural role of «conciliation» that modern school plays against the demands of the State and the Church in the attempt to control it. Finally, it argues that pedagogical knowledge constitutes a third source of credibility and truth against the two traditional sovereign powers.