Madrid, Spain - Spain's constitutional court backed the Roman Catholic Church in a row over a religious studies teacher who was sacked for living with a man.
Maria del Carmen Galayo Macias, who worked as a teacher for ten years, did not have her contract renewed after she started living with a man who was separated from his wife.
After seven years of legal battles, the constitutional court ruled a religious studies teacher's duties go further than simply giving lessons.
It backed the Church which had sacked the teacher.
But the ruling caused controversy on Friday with critics saying it was a throwback to "another age".