Ananova :

A schoolteacher is protesting to the Spanish parliament after being sacked because she lives with her boyfriend.

Religion teacher Maria Carmen Galayo is one of three teachers angry after they were fired by the Church.

Primary schoolteacher Francisca Urbano had a drink with a male colleague and didn't attend Mass every Sunday while Resurreccion Galera married a divorced man.

The women marched into the Spanish parliament, demanding their jobs back.

They also condemned the government for bowing to the Roman Catholic Church in a way they said recalls the darkest period of their country's history.

"It's the Inquisition all over again," said Ms Urbano, who had worked for a state school in the southern town of Monda for 10 years until Bishop Antonio Dorado of Malaga ordered her contract not be renewed.

"They told me I was not a good example of a Christian lifestyle for my students because I didn't go to Mass and there was a rumour that I'd gone for a drink with a male colleague," she said.

"Well, I go to church when I can ... and indeed I did have a drink, which is the most normal thing in the world."

A statement released by the Spanish Bishops' Conference said the dismissals were legal under the "international pact which binds the Holy See to the Spanish state".

It was referring to a treaty Spain signed with the Vatican in 1979 that preserved the church's exclusive authority to approve teachers of religion classes, which are not compulsory.

Story filed: 12:50 Tuesday 11th September 2001

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