Vatican fires Polish catholic priest after he comes out as gay

 The Vatican has fired a senior priest, who publicly came out as gay, on the eve of a major meeting of church leaders to discuss the Church’s stance on social issues such as divorce and homosexuality.

In a statement on Saturday, a spokesman for Pope Francis said Polish priest Krzystof Charamsa’s action had been “very serious and irresponsible”, and that he would be automatically kicked out of his post as a theologian in the Vatican.

 Father Krzystof Charamsa, who held a post in the Vatican's branch for protecting Catholic dogma, urged the Catholic church to change its 'backwards' attitude to homosexuality.

The 43-year-old revealed that he also had a Spanish partner, in two separate interviews with an Italian newspaper and a Polish news programme.

'It's time for the Church to open its eyes about gay Catholics and to understand that the solution it proposes to them – total abstinence from a life of love – is inhuman,' he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, saying he wanted to challenge the Church's 'paranoia'.

'I know that I will have to give up my ministry which is my whole life.

'I know that the Church will see me as someone who did not know how to fulfil his duty [to remain chaste], who is lost and who is not even with a woman but with a man!'

Flanked by his Spanish boyfriend and sporting his priest’s collar, Charamsa told a news conference in Rome he had been compelled to speak out against the hypocrisy and paranoia that he says shapes the Church’s attitude to sexual minorities.

While appearing resigned to the fact that his life as a priest is over, he said: “I’m out of the closet and I’m very happy about that.”

Visibly moved at times but always smiling, the 43-year-old added in Italian: “I want to be an advocate for all sexual minorities and their families who have suffered in silence.”

In an indication that Charamsa had planned the move for some time, he presented a 10-point “liberation manifesto” against “institutionalised homophobia in the Church”, which he said particularly oppressed the gay men who, according to him, make up the majority of priests.

He also revealed plans for a book about his 12 years at the heart of a Vatican bureaucracy only just recovering from a scandal under previous pope Benedict XVI over the influence of a “gay lobby” among senior clergy

Atmosphere of homophobia
“I dedicate my coming out to all Catholic  gay priests,” Charamsa said. “I wish them happiness even if I know that most of them will not have the courage to make the gesture I have made today.”

“To my Church, I want to say that I reject and I denounce the current atmosphere of exasperating homophobia. Open your eyes to the suffering of gay people, to their desire for love.”

He also revealed plans for a book about his 12 years at the heart of a Vatican bureaucracy only just recovering from a scandal under previous Pope Benedict XVI over the influence of a 'gay lobby' among senior clergy. 

He had also planned a demonstration in front of the Vatican, but changed the venue several hours before it was due to start.

Charamsa, 43, timed his announcement for maximum media impact, coming as it did on the eve of a synod that is the second and final round of a review of Catholic teaching on the family.

 In the interview, Charamsa said his partner had helped him come to terms with his sexuality and knew he would have to give up the priesthood, although the Vatican statement made no reference to this outcome. 

Although the issue of homosexuality forms only a tiny part of the synod’s agenda, it has dominated the run-up to the three-week meeting and become a lightning rod for a broader debate between reformists and conservatives in the Church

It was the timing of Charamsa’s action rather than the substance of what he said that infuriated his superiors.



But the Vatican insists the dismissal had nothing to do with Father Charamsa's homosexuality, which it said 'merits respect'.

It said, however, that giving the interview and the planned demonstration was 'grave and irresponsible' given their timing on the evening before a synod [meeting] of bishops that was set to discuss family issues, including how to reach out to gay people.

Catholic attitudes to sexuality were already making headlines this weekend after the Vatican confirmed that Francis had hugged an old gay friend and met his partner during his recent visit to the United States.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is not a sin but that homosexual acts are. 

It is this that makes Charamsa's defrocking or resignation as a priest inevitable, according to Vatican experts.

Increasingly, progressive theologians have come to accept that sexuality is innate, a premise that makes it harder to maintain a stance of outright condemnation.

But that view is not shared by conservatives who hold that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice and that the task of the Church is to help gays to live celibate lives. 

The Vatican has been embarrassed by controversy over the Pope's meeting with Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who went to jail in September for refusing to honour a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and issue same-sex marriage licences.

 The highly symbolic gesture, indicative of Francis’s personally tolerant attitude towards gays, came a day before he met prominent gay marriage opponent Kim Davis – another private encounter that the Vatican said did not indicate support for her stance.

The Vatican said on Friday that 'the only real audience' the Pope had during his visit to Washington was with a small group that included a gay couple. 

Last year's first round of the synod also sparked global headlines when a draft working document included a passage saying that loving same-sex relationships had qualities that the Church should recognise. 

But after a backlash from conservatives, that groundbreaking phrase was stripped from the final conclusions.