VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost
Agence France-Presse on Oct 3, 2015
The Vatican reacted furiously on Saturday after a Polish priest employed as a senior official publicly declared his homosexuality on the eve of a bishops’ synod set to touch on the divisive issue of the Catholic Church’s relationship to gay believers.
In a statement, a spokesman for Pope Francis said Krzystof Charamsa’s action had been “very serious and irresponsible”, and that the priest would be automatically kicked out of his post as a theologian in the Vatican.
Flanked by his Catalan boyfriend and wearing his priest’s collar, Charamsa told a news conference in Rome he had been compelled to speak out against what he said was the hypocrisy and paranoia that shapes the Church’s attitude to sexual minorities.
While appearing resigned to the fact that his life as a priest is over, he said: “I’m out of the closet and I’m very happy about that.”
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