An official at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith says he is homosexual, has a partner and that the Church’s stance on same-sex love is inhuman.
In a long interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday, Msgr Krzysztof Charamsa, 43, announced he is gay and has a partner.
He later held a news conference with his partner, a Spanish man, and gay activists at a Rome restaurant.
Msgr Charamsa, a Polish theologian, said he is “ready to pay the consequences” of his coming out.
“But the moment has come for the Church to open its eyes to gay believers and to understand that the solution which it offers to gays, namely total abstinence from a love life, is simply inhuman,” he said.
He added: “It seems to me that, in the Church, we don’t know homosexuality because we don’t know homosexuals, yet we have them all over the place.”
“With my story I want to shake the conscience of the Church a bit.”
Msgr Charamsa disputed that biblical passages forbad genuine same-sex love.
The Vatican responded by stating that Msgr Charamsa would be unable to carry out his previous work at the CDF.
He will also have to stand down from lecturing at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
“Other aspects of his situation shall remain the competence of his diocesan ordinary,” said Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ.
Msgr Charamsa said he knew he would have to give up his ministry.
The Vatican said Msgr Charamsa’s dismissal had nothing to do with his comments on his personal situation, which it said “merit respect”.
But it said giving the interview and planning a later demonstration was “grave and irresponsible” given their timing on the eve of the synod on the family.
There is believed to be a book is in the offing which may reveal further details of Msgr Charamsa’s 12 years of hidden life inside the Holy See.
In a blog on the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference website, Bishop Charles Drennan of Palmerston North wrote about CDF official’s actions.
Sources