Krzysztof Charamsa

Early life and education

Charamsa was born on 5 August 1972 in Gdynia, Poland. His father worked as an economist, and his mother was a devout Catholic.

He studied theology and philosophy from 1991 to 1993 in Pelplin in Poland and from 1993 to 1997 at the theological faculty of the University of Lugano in Switzerland. In 2002 he obtained a doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Presbytariate

Charamsa was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pelplin 28 June 1997.

He taught theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum beginning in 2004 and at the Pontifical Gregorian University beginning in 2009. From 2003 until 2015 he worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He explained years later that he discovered that his colleagues had no understanding of what it was to be homosexual. He said that Pope Benedict XVI's 2005 ruling that even a celibate homosexual was not fit for the priesthood prompted him to public advocacy "to defend myself".

Coming out

Charasma timed his coming out in anticipation of the second session of the Bishop's Synod on the Family, scheduled to begin on 4 October 2015. Two days before it opened, he announced he was gay in an interview in Polish for a film then in production, Article Eighteen, a documentary about the campaign for same-sex marriage in Poland. His announcement attracted considerable attention in the Polish media.

On the eve of the Synod, he announced in Corriere della Sera, one of Italy's most important newspapers, that he is gay and has a consensual partner. He said: "I want the Church and my community to know who I am: a gay priest who is happy, and proud of his identity. I'm prepared to pay the consequences, but it's time the Church opened its eyes, and realised that offering gay believers total abstinence from a life of love is inhuman." He also gave a press conference at which his partner, identified as Eduard, appeared beside him.

Frederico Lombardi, director of the Press Office of the Holy See, acknowledged that while he respected Charamsa's personal situation Charamsa's "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 immediately dismissed Charasma from his teaching positions and his posts in the Roman Curia. On 21 October, Bishop Ryszard Kasyna of Pelplin, the diocese in which Charamsa was ordained, suspended him from the priesthood, forbidding him to perform the sacraments or wear clerical garb. He has not been laicized. He was forced to move from the convent in Rome where he had lived for years while serving as as a chaplain.

Some LGBT organizations criticized Charamsa for adopting a confrontational stance that they thought could damage other efforts. One said: "Our fear now is that his coming out, and the way he came out, will build a wall, not a bridge." The organizers of a conference of Italian gay Catholics, the Rainbow Catholics Assembly, scheduled for 3 October were frustrated that the media focused on Charamsa's story and not their more respectful approach, which had even succeeded in attracting Bishop José Raúl Vera López of Saltillo, Mexico, as one of their speakers.

Critique of the Synod and the Catholic Church

On 28 October, shortly after the Synod ended, Charamsa released a letter he has sent to Pope Francis on 3 October. He accused the church of making life hell for millions of gay Catholics. He wrote that he hoped Francis will understand the torment gay priests suffer and thanked Francis for some of his words and gestures towards gay people. However, he criticised the Catholic Church for being "frequently violently homophobic" and "insensitive, unfair and brutal" towards people that are gay, despite the fact that he claimed there are significant numbers of gay men at all levels within the Church, including the College of Cardinals. He called for all statements from the Holy See that are offensive and violent against gay people to be withdrawn, citing the policy put in place by Pope Benedict XVI's in 2005 that forbids men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies from becoming priests. He said Benedict's characterization of homosexuality as "a strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil" was "diabolical".

He also assessed the Synod's work on the Church's approach to gays and lesbians. He criticised the Synod for restating stereotypes about gay people. He said: "If the Church can't make a serious, scientific reflection on homosexuality and include it in its teachings, even the Holy Father's openings and warm words on gays are empty." He quoted Cardinal Robert Sarah, who told the Synod: "What Nazi-Fascism and Communism were in the 20th century, Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism are today." Charamsa commented: "No one publicly said a word against those defamatory sentences. What kind of respect does that show to us all?"

When asked if he planned to marry his partner, Charamsa said that marriage is "part of the dynamic of love and I thank God that I live in a century where it's possible, thanks to the homosexual movement and thanks to many homosexual martyrs". He also defended the timing of his announcement on the eve of the Synod: "Many people have said it was so spectacular, so big, that it did not come at a good time. With these people I have a question: when is it a good time to come out in the church? When? After the synod? The answer is: 'never'. The responsible time for coming out is never."

Charamsa supports gay rights and same-sex marriage and also supports mercy and forgiveness towards women who have had abortions. Charamsa believes that priests with secure incomes and no family pressures cannot understand the pressures driving poor women to abortions. He does not believe that the phrase gay lobby reflects the experience of homosexuals in the Roman Curia: "I met homosexual priests, often isolated like me but no gay lobby."

Writings