On Sunday, the Associated Press reports, the Vatican fired Krzysztof Charamsa, a monsignor and mid-level official in its doctrine office, who came out as gay in newspaper interviews in Italy and Poland just ahead of the Catholic bishops’ synod to discuss church outreach.

“I have to say who I am. I am a gay priest. I am a happy and proud gay priest,” Charasma told the Polish weekly Gazeta Wyborcza, after receiving hate mail in response to earlier criticisms he had made in the Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny of a right-wing homophobic Polish priest.

“I came out. This is a very personal, difficult and tough decision in the Catholic church’s homophobic world,” Charamsa said at a press conference in Rome, joined by his boyfriend (identified only as Eduard), with whom he said he was in love, after his firing was announced. Charamsa also said he has written a book to “lay bare” his experience “in front of all those who want to confront me.”

According to the Associated Press, tomorrow’s gathering of bishops is expected to address how the Catholic church might better administer to members of its flock who are gay.

“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,” Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said in a statement.

Charamsa will remain a priest (for now), Lombardi said, but he can no longer work at the Vatican or its pontifical universities. (The rule excluding homosexual men from joining the priesthood was introduced in 2005, by which point Charamsa had already been ordained.)

The Polish theologian had worked at the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, since 2003, Reuters reports. The Church does not consider homosexuality to be a sin, but priests—regardless of sexual orientation—must be celibate.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Charamsa said, “I would like to tell the Synod that homosexual love is a kind of family love, a love that needs the family. Everyone—gays, lesbians and transsexuals included—foster in their hearts a desire for love and family.”

“Everyone has the right to love, and that love must be protected by society and law. But above all it must be nourished by the Church.”

He continued: “If I failed to be open, if I didn’t accept myself, I couldn’t be a good priest in any case, because I couldn’t act as an intermediary for the joy of God.”

Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.