Vatican Fires Gay Priest
on Eve of Synod
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OCTOBER 3, 2015
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on
Saturday fired a monsignor who came
out as gay on the eve of a big meeting of
the world's bishops to discuss church
outreach to gays, divorcees and more
traditional Catholic families.
The Vatican took action after Krzysztof
Charamsa, a mid-level official in its
doctrine office, came out in newspaper
interviews in Italy and Poland saying he
was happy and proud to be a gay priest,
and that he was in love with a man
whom he identified as his boyfriend.
"The decision to make such a pointed
statement on the eve of the opening of
the synod appears very serious and
irresponsible, since it aims to subject the
synod assembly to undue media
pressure," the Vatican spokesman, the
Rev. Federico Lombardi, said in a
statement.
As a result, Charamsa could no longer
work at the Vatican or its pontifical
universities, he said. Despite his
dismissal, Charamsa remains a priest,
although Lombardi hinted that his
superiors could take further action.
Charamsa, 43, initially planned a press
conference in front of the Vatican's
Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith's
office, but moved it to central Rome
after the Vatican action. He was joined
by his companion, identified only as
Eduard.
Charamsa told reporters that the timing
of his disclosure was not related to the
bishops meeting on the family, but said
he hoped it might add "a Christian voice"
to the synod that is expected to address
how the Church can better minister to
the homosexual faithful.
"I came out. This is a very personal,
difficult and tough decision in the
Catholic church's homophobic world,"
Charamsa said, and asked people to bear
this in mind.
He said he has written a book in Italian
and Polish to "lay bare" his experience
"in front of all those who want to
confront me."
Charamsa told the Polish daily Gazeta
Wyborcza that he was motivated to make
his sexual orientation public by hate
mail that he received after publicly
criticizing a right-wing Polish priest who
is strongly anti-gay in the Catholic
weekly Tygodnik Powszechny.
"I have to say who I am. I am a gay
priest. I am a happy and proud gay
priest," he told Gazeta Wyborcza.
___
Vanessa Gera in Warsaw and Colleen
Barry in Milan contributed.
___
This story has been corrected to show
the correct spelling of the priest's first
name is Krzysztof, not Kryzstof.
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