Before hundreds of Catholic bishops from around the world could gather at the Vatican for the Synod of Bishops, Monsignor Krysztof Olaf Charamsa stole the spotlight from this assembly to discuss the issues facing Catholic families by bringing attention to his own dilemma. In multiple media interviews and a press conference Saturday, the Polish priest announced that he is gay, and declared his intentions to ask the church “to revise Catholic doctrine on homosexuality,” according to CNN. Joined by his partner, Charamsa said that the timing wasn’t “intended to pressurize anyone,” and then we assume he winked and chuckled.
Charamsa was terminated from his gig with the Vatican’s doctrinal arm, not because of his lifestyle, but because his “planned demonstration” was “grave and irresponsible.” Additionally, his media tour put “undue media pressure” on the Synod of Bishops, because how’s a company retreat supposed to get its trust falls done with people asking so many questions?
It’s been a heck of a few weeks for Pope Francis and the Catholic Church in regard to homosexuality, as the so-called Rock Star Pope ended his trip to the United States with controversy, having met with Kim Davis and her second/fourth husband. While Davis and her lawyers told everyone who would listen that the Cool Pope is in their camp, Vatican officials eventually did some backtracking to make it clear that the Pope met with a lot of people, and hand-shaking is not an endorsement. And if all that wasn’t enough, there are now rumors of the Church’s secret rehab center for gay priests, which has unsurprisingly drawn scorn and outrage from civil-rights groups.
For more on Charamsa’s firing, anchors Tom Storey and Briana Lane weigh in on today’s episode of The Desk.