European Court of Human Rights Decides Martínez v Spain (June 12, 2014) [1]
On June 12, 2014, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) decided [3] Fernández Martínez v. Spain, finding—by a majority of 9 to 8—that there was no violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights [4] when Mr. Martínez’s contract to teach religion in a State school was not renewed. According to the press release [5], Mr. Martínez, a former Catholic priest with a Papal dispensation from celibacy, appeared in a newspaper article “indicating [his] disagreement with the Church’s position on abortion, divorce, sexuality and contraception.” The Court found that “[i]n choosing to accept a publication about his family circumstances and his association with a protest-oriented meeting, Mr Fernández Martínez had severed the bond of trust that was necessary for the fulfillment of his professional duties.” The Court further held that “by signing his successive employment contracts, [Mr. Martínez] had knowingly and voluntarily accepted a special duty of loyalty towards the Catholic Church, which limited the scope of his right to respect for his private and family life to a certain degree.” Finding that the domestic courts had “taken into account all the relevant factors and had weighed up the interests at stake in detail and in depth, within the limits imposed on them by the necessary respect for the autonomy of the Catholic Church,” the Court concluded that the interference with private and family life was not disproportionate.