A group of nuns running an educational institution in Italy has been penalized for trying to uphold Roman Catholic teachings against homosexuality.
A judge has ordered nuns from the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from the northern Italian town of Trento to pay 25,000 euros to a former teacher whose employment was discontinued over her apparent homosexuality.
The labor court of Rovereto ruled that the employee's "presumed" homosexuality "had nothing to do with her adhesion to the educative project of the school."
The case started back in 2014 when the Catholic school's former principal, Sister Eugenia Libratore, confronted the unnamed teacher about rumors that she was living together in a romantic relationship with another woman.
The employee was however unwilling to disclose her sexuality to the school administrator. Her employment in the Roman Catholic institution was subsequently discontinued.
According to the court, the nuns in the Catholic school committed "collective discrimination" for discontinuing the supposed lesbian teacher's employment. The court added that the decision to no longer hire the employee "affects everyone that potentially is interested in taking on a position in the Institute."
The Catholic school administrators however denied that they discriminated against their former employee, maintaining that her contract had already expired.
The unnamed teacher's lawyer, Alexander Schuster, welcomed the court's decision, saying that an employee's sexuality was not within the realm of concerns of Catholic school officials.
"This decision makes one point clear: that employers of religious or philosophical inspiration cannot subject their employers to questions about their private lives or discriminate them for their choices in life. The use of contraceptives, the choice of cohabitation, divorce, and abortions are private decisions of a person and do not affect the employe," Schuster told Life Site News.
Aside from paying the employee, the group of nuns was also ordered to pay 1,500 euros to the "Radical Association of Certain Rights" – a gay rights activist group in Italy and another 1,500 euros to a local labor union.
