Former Catholic Priest Has New Wife, New Life

Proving that there is life beyond the Catholic Church - something those of my generation were taught was not possible without going to Hell - former Catholic priest Alberto Cutie has married and and is progressing in his new life as an Episcopalian. Personally, I prefer the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America having attended both, but I applaud Cutie for having the courage to leave a repressive and increasingly unloving denomination. The full transition will take time but I suspect will be rewarding. There is more to religious faith than guilt and repression of joy and of course all things sexual. Moreover, as a married man, Cutie will have some real life experience when it comes to counseling others. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

*

MIAMI -- Alberto Cutie walked away from a Coral Gables, Fla., court early one morning this week, marriage license in hand, according to a record posted on Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts Web site that lists 35-year-old Ruhama Buni Canellis as the bride.

*

The former Catholic priest is a widely popular figure among Latinos in the United States. He caused an uproar when photos showing him nuzzling Canellis on a Florida beach -- a violation of his vow of celibacy -- were published in a celebrity magazine early last month.

*
The couple were legally married by a judge Tuesday, but sources say they will have a religious ceremony in an unnamed Episcopal church. The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, will officiate that wedding.

*

Cutie gave his first sermon as an Episcopalian on May 31 at Church of the Resurrection in Biscayne Park and has started a yearlong process to become an Episcopal priest. In the meantime, he will continue to give sermons and rehabilitate ailing Episcopal churches, including the Church of the Holy Comforter in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

Sex and the Single Priest

I'm obviously no fan of the Roman Catholic Church and as a former Catholic I believe the Church's requirement of priestly celibacy is ridiculous - after all, the policy was first implemented to avoid losing money to the families of priests, not for any true theological reason - and largely sets the stage for the sexual abuse of minors which has likely plagued the Church for centuries, not just decades. As Time is reporting, the Church hierarchy in South Florida has its panties in a wad over a charismatic priest, Rev. Alberto Cutié, who - God forbid - has normal sexual attractions to women of legal age. Why is it that the Church can enable and/or cover up the sexual abuse of minors, yet still not face the fact that celibacy is an ABNORMAL condition for those who are normal be they gay or straight. Here are some highlights from Time's coverage:

*

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit, fondling her rear end.

*

Because of the scandal, the Archdiocese of Miami says Cutié, 40, is no longer the administrator of his Miami Beach parish, and it has barred him from leading Sunday mass there. His media work seems up in the air now, and the popular website padrealberto.net has only a blue screen with a message from Cutié asking forgiveness.

*

But Cutie's penalty might elicit more than a few snickers from Catholics who have spent the past few decades watching the priestly perdition parade of sexual abuse, parish embezzlement and doctrinal intolerance. The Miami archdiocese has had to pay out millions of dollars in sexual-abuse settlements in recent years — including a case involving a former priest at Cutié's South Beach church, St. Francis de Sales. . . . so long as Cutié wasn't frolicking with a minor (female or male) or using parish funds to buy margaritas for his paramour, many parishioners may actually be relieved that their popular priest has a libido focused on a woman who has reached the age of consent.

*

What's more, one of the pillars of Cutié's popularity is his relationship counseling. To any Catholic who's had to suffer through a lecture on marriage from a celibate kid just out of seminary, Cutié's romantic romp might just make him a more appealing priest — more human, perhaps, than Catholic clergy who deny communion to divorcees, gays and anyone else who dares violate the Church's litany of "non-negotiable" rules.

*

the Cutié scandal is sure to ratchet up debate over clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church, a spiritual ideal that seems to collide more often today with biological reality. . . . A bigger problem for the Church, however, may be Cutié's Oprah-like standing in the Latino community — the only demographic where the U.S. Catholicism is experiencing growth. America's Catholic bishops, many of whom are widely accused of allowing the sexual abuse crisis to happen, must realize that Cutié is more well regarded among Catholics than they are, especially among Latinos.

*

In my view, unless and until the Church allows married priests it can count on continuing to recruit misfits and those utterly out of touch with the realities with which their parishioners live each day.