Vatican fires Gay Priest on eve of synod

By Nicole Winfield and Pietro Decristofaro | AP October 3, in Washington Post
Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, left, and his partner Eduard, surname not given, leave a restaurant after a news conference in downtown Rome, Saturday Oct. 3, 2015. The Vatican on Saturday fired Charamsa 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. (Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press)
(Note: Just as our lives are made up of days and nights, light and darkness, the world we live in is full of pleasant and unpleasant, heartening and harsh realities which either attract us or drive us to go crazy. We have to live and let live people without being judgmental just because they are different from our likes and dislikes. Pope Francis met Kim Davis, bitterly opposed to gay marriages and also embraced a gay male couple without condemning or approving their way of life. These are grey areas of the creator of this universe, if there is a creator at all, has approved, to give due respect to those who believe in evolution. There are many areas of life which we are not able to understand or comprehend. That is no reason either to approve or condemn them. That is why Pope Francis also gives equal treatment to people who have conflicting views of gay unions. Judge not and you shall not be judged, is the wise counsel we all should follow. james kottoor, editor)
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.