Constitutional Court In Spain Forces Catholic Brotherhood To Admit Woman

By Nicolás de Cárdenas

Spain’s Constitutional Court (TC, by its Spanish acronym) has ruled that by refusing to admit a woman, a male Catholic brotherhood violated the legal precept of nondiscrimination on the basis of her sex and her right to association.

In 2008, María Teresita Laborda Sanz requested to join the Pontifical, Royal, and Venerable Slavery of the Most Holy Christ of La Laguna, a public association of the faithful founded in 1545.

Article 1 of the statutes of the brotherhood states that it is “a religious association of gentlemen, established to promote among its members a more perfect Christian life, the exercise of works of evangelical piety, and the increase of devotion and veneration of the holy image of Our Crucified Lord,” which is why the application was denied.

In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that Laborda had not suffered any discrimination because “the purposes of [the brotherhood] being religious, it did not hold a dominant position in the economic, professional, or labor spheres, so no harm could be caused to the appellant, who could create a new religious association with the same purposes.”

The Constitutional Court now considers that the content of the Article 1 of the brotherhood’s statutes “isn’t protected by the religious autonomy of said association to the extent that the prohibition of women from being part of the association is not based on any reason of a religious or moral nature,” a Nov. 4 statementfrom the TC explains.

“The requirements of religious freedom and the principle of religious neutrality not being in question” derived from Article 16 of the Spanish Constitution, the court considers that “although a private association has the right to freely choose whom it associates with (Article 22), this right cannot constitute discrimination based on gender when the association holds a ‘privileged’ or ‘dominant’ position in the economic, cultural, social, or professional field,” as the Supreme Court held.

However, the Constitutional Court maintained that “although the activities carried out, from which the appellant is excluded, are acts of religious worship and are not related to any economic, professional, or work-related matters, this does not exclude the possibility that these acts may also have a social or cultural impact, given that culture and religion, being different elements, are not watertight compartments, and a large number of religious [public events] in Spain are part of the history and social culture of our country.”

The TC concluded that the plaintiff “has no possibility of carrying out the same activity of veneration of said image in another brotherhood or confraternity of the municipality.” The ruling of the six judges of the Second Chamber of the Constitutional Court was not unanimous.

Expert: Ruling is ‘bad news’

Rafael Palomino, a professor of ecclesiastical law of the state at the Complutense University of Madrid, criticized the ruling of the TC in a comment published on his professional profile on LinkedIn, calling it “bad news.”

To the argument of the TC that considers the plaintiff has had her rights violated because “she does not have the possibility of exercising the same activity of veneration of said image in another brotherhood or confraternity of the municipality,” Palomino responded: “What do you mean she cannot carry out the same religious activity? Let the appellant set up another brotherhood, another association, another religion if she wants! This is beginning to be the inverse of the law presided over by a banana republic constitutional judiciary.”

Consulted by ACI Prensa, the Diocese of Tenerife declined to comment on the ruling.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.