Vatican fires gay priest over ‘irresponsible’ coming out
The Vatican has fired a Monsignor who came out as gay.
Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa was a mid-level official in the Vatican’s doctrine office.
However, on the eve of the biggest meeting of the world’s bishops to discuss church outreach, Father Charamsa has made the brave move to publicly come out.
In newspaper interviews published in Italy and Poland on Saturday (September 28), Charamsa said he was happy and proud to be a gay priest, and was in love with a man named Eduardo, whom he identified as his boyfriend, reports the Associated Press.
In response, the Vatican have claimed the timing of Monsignor Charamsa’s announcement was “irresponsible” – and a direct attack on the Catholic Church ahead of the synod, where hundreds of high ranking Catholic officials will meet to discuss outreach.
“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, Lombardi said.
“Msgr. Charamsa will certainly be unable to continue to carry out his previous work in (Vatican body) the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical universities, while the other aspects of his situation shall remain the competence of his diocesan Ordinary,” Lombardi continued.
Despite his dismissal, Charamsa remains a priest – although Lombardi hinted that his superiors could take further action.
Charamsa had planned a press conference in Rome for midday today to discuss his sexual orientation and criticise the church for spreading “pervasive and blind homophobia.”
However, he was pre-empted by the Vatican action, after senior church officials discovered his plan.
Charasma had previously acknowledged that his actions would make it impossible for him to remain a priest.
“I know that I will have to give up my ministry which is my whole life,” he told interviewers.
The priest said he wanted to challenge what he termed the Church’s “paranoia” with regard to sexual minorities, claiming the Catholic clergy was largely made up of intensely homophobic homosexuals.
The Catholic Church admitted earlier this week that the Pope had a private meeting with Kentucky clerk Kim Davis during his US tour last month, which was kept off his official itinerary.
Davis, the clerk for Rowan County Kentucky, has been married four times, but claims God doesn’t want gays to marry – and was briefly jailed for contempt of court after ignoring direct orders from courts to stop blocking gay weddings.
The Church attempted to play down the meeting, with Lombardi telling reporters that the meeting “should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects.”
“The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects.”
The claim is surprising, as the Pontiff also appeared to back Davis while speaking to reporters on his flight home, when asked about her case and other Christian ‘martyrs’.
Furthermore, despite an early ‘who am I to judge’ PR blitz attempting to bolster his image, the Pope is yet to lift any of the actively homophobic and transphobic policies of his predecessors.
Proposals to ‘reach out’ to gay people were scrapped by the Church last year – and despite suggestions that the plans would return at the 2015 Synod, it soon became clear the Church has no plans to discuss the matter again – which many believe was Charasma’s chief motive when speaking out.
