Echoing the charges made by others formerly in the Roman Catholic priesthood, Father Alberto Cutié - now an Episcopalian because of his desire to marry the woman he loved - formerly one of the Catholic Church's most media savvy American priests and hugely popular within the Hispanic community, has blasted the Catholic Church for its pro-celibacy and anti-gay hypocrisy. As Time, the Miami Herald and the Miami News Times are both reporting, Cutié holds no punches in his new book, Dilemma: A Priest's Struggle with Faith and Love (Celebra; 320 pages; $25.95). He likewise, takes the Church hierarchy for its malfeasance in the handling of the sex abuse scandal where pedophile priests were shown far more deference and concern than did the molestation victims. Moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy are truly the main hallmarks of the Vatican and Church leadership. First this from the Miami News Times:*
In the book, Cutié slams the Church as misogynistic, hypocritical on homosexuality, and an "institution that continues to promote old ideas." "There are so many homosexuals, both active and celibate, at all levels of clergy and Church hierarchy that the church would never be able to function if they were really to exclude all of them [gays] from ministry,'' Cutié writes.
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Unsurprisingly, he's critical on the Church's celibacy policy and blames it partially for the string of sex abuse scandals that have plagues the church. He also take direct aim at former Miami Archbishop John Favalora "an aloof CEO'' with a "cold and rigid approach."
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These highlights from the Miami Herald expand on this theme:
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In several passages, Cutié blames the church's celibacy policy for the dwindling clergy pool and the child sex-abuse scandals. He also accuses church leaders of being hypocrites and says they tacitly accept secret homosexual and heterosexual relationships among priests but disapproved of his because it became public.
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``There are so many homosexuals, both active and celibate, at all levels of clergy and Church hierarchy that the church would never be able to function if they were really to exclude all of them from ministry,'' Cutié writes. The priest's critiques -- he also expresses anger that many priests are too-quickly ``abandoned to sink or swim'' when accused of sexual crimes -- are not unique. But rare is such a public airing of grievances against the archdiocese by a former insider.
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And then Time has this:
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Cutié just as rightly notes that "there are much bigger problems in the church" than his otherwise healthy relationship with a consenting adult. Cutié's tell-all saves its harshest censure not for the gossip rags (which he all but thanks for outing him) but for the Catholic hierarchy's retro hypocrisies — especially celibacy, which he posits, based on a flood of letters he's since received from priests, is a promise broken by many if not most clerics (some promiscuously) as they combat the loneliness it can breed. The church is "disconnected from the very people it was meant to serve," he writes, and it acted more distressed by his peccadillo than by "the truly criminal, outrageous and blatantly immoral behavior" of pedophile priests.
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In several passages, Cutié blames the church's celibacy policy for the dwindling clergy pool and the child sex-abuse scandals. He also accuses church leaders of being hypocrites and says they tacitly accept secret homosexual and heterosexual relationships among priests but disapproved of his because it became public.
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``There are so many homosexuals, both active and celibate, at all levels of clergy and Church hierarchy that the church would never be able to function if they were really to exclude all of them from ministry,'' Cutié writes. The priest's critiques -- he also expresses anger that many priests are too-quickly ``abandoned to sink or swim'' when accused of sexual crimes -- are not unique. But rare is such a public airing of grievances against the archdiocese by a former insider.
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And then Time has this:
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Cutié just as rightly notes that "there are much bigger problems in the church" than his otherwise healthy relationship with a consenting adult. Cutié's tell-all saves its harshest censure not for the gossip rags (which he all but thanks for outing him) but for the Catholic hierarchy's retro hypocrisies — especially celibacy, which he posits, based on a flood of letters he's since received from priests, is a promise broken by many if not most clerics (some promiscuously) as they combat the loneliness it can breed. The church is "disconnected from the very people it was meant to serve," he writes, and it acted more distressed by his peccadillo than by "the truly criminal, outrageous and blatantly immoral behavior" of pedophile priests.
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