Father Krzysztof Charamsa has urged the Catholic church to change its “backwards” attitude to homosexuality

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A Polish priest who has worked for the Vatican for more than a decade has been sacked after he revealed he was gay and had a partner.

Father Krzysztof Charamsa, 43, who held a post in the Vatican’s branch for protecting Catholic dogma, urged the Catholic church to change its “backwards” attitude to homosexuality.

He disclosed in two separate interviews with an Italian newspaper and a Polish news programme that he had a Spanish male partner.

The announcement on Saturday came on the eve of a major synod of bishops on the family, which will address a range of subjects including homosexuality.

The priest and his partner later posed for photographs at a press conference held in a restaurant in Rome. They had planned a demonstration in front of the Vatican but changed the venue several hours before it was due to have started.

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“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”, he said.

“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.”

The priest, had held a post at the congregation of the doctrine of the faith since 2003 and taught theology at pontifical universities in Rome, posts from which he has also been dismissed.

The Vatican said the dismissal had nothing to do with Charamsa’s reflections on his personal life, which it said “merit respect”.

But it said his interviews and the planned demonstration was “grave and irresponsible” given their timing on the eve of a synod of bishops who will discuss family issues, including the church’s position on gay people.

The Vatican said his actions were aimed at subjecting the synod, which Pope Francis opens on Sunday, to “undue media pressure”.

The Pope presided at prayer vigil for the synod on Saturday night before tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.

At the news conference, Charamsa said he wanted to make “an enormous noise for the good of the church” and apply “good Christian pressure” on the synod not to forget homosexual believers.

“This decision of mine to come out was a very personal one taken in a Catholic church that is homophobic and very difficult and harsh [towards gay people],” he said.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to Catholic gay people, said the Vatican’s move was “sadly disappointing”.

“It is unfortunate that church leaders did not see Charamsa’s announcement as an opportunity for further dialogue with someone they have known and trusted,” DeBarnardo said.

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At the news conference, Charamsa suggested that a study be made of how many homosexuals work in the Vatican.

“I ask the pope to be strong and to remember us, homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals as children of the church and members of humanity,” Charamsa said.

The issue of homosexuality forms only a tiny part of the synod’s agenda, but 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.