Vatican priest dismissed after announcing his gay relationship

Mgr Charamsa

A priest who has worked at the Vatican for eleven years has been dismissed from his post after stating publicly that he is gay and has a partner.

Yesterday, the day before the opening of the second round of the Synod on the Family, Mgr Krzysztof Charamsa made the announcement in the Corriere della Sera newspaper and issued a 10-point manifesto demanding that the Holy See change its teachings about homosexuality and celibacy. He also gave a press conference with his partner.

Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Mgr Charamsa and his reflections on his life and sexuality were deserving of respect, but "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."

"Mgr Charamsa will certainly be unable to continue to carry out his previous work in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the pontifical universities," where he teaches: the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Fr Lombardi said.

Mgr Charamsa, 43, studied theology and philosophy in Pelplin in Poland from 1993 to 1997 when he was ordained, and at the theological faculty of the University of Lugano in Switzerland. In 2002 he obtained a doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Since 2004 he was teaching theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and since 2009 at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Since 2003 he has worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.