A provincial law court in Almeria has just ordered a state school to reinstate a Religion teacher, whom they had fired because she had married a divorced man from Germany.

Resurrección Galera can now return to her old position at Colegio Ferrer Guardia de la Cañada ‘under the same conditions’ as before her dismissal. Furthermore, the Board of Education will have to cough up ten years’ of back pay!

It’s the state; i.e., the taxpayer, who will have to cough up, even though it was the Bishopric of Almeria that caused the problem – thanks, Guys! You see the Bishop’s Secretary informed that female teacher that if she ‘persisted in this situation,’ she would not be hired for the following school terms. The diocese pressured the Junta de Andalucía and this regional body, instead of telling them to get real, bowed to their demand and dismissed the woman.

The Education Board said that they would obey, to the letter, the judge’s findings but pointed out that they acted according the State-Church Accords in which it is stipulated that the Church decides who is appropriate or not to fill the posts of Religion teachers in public schools.

There in lies the problem, Ladies and Gentlemen; we’re stuck with a Vatican Accord that was original penned during the Dictatorship of Franco and reaffirmed during the early days of Spanish Democracy in the late 70’s…

(Regional News: Almeria, Andalucia)