Frankly I have not paid much attention to this because I do not care an whole lot.
The Rev. Alberto Cutié, the celebrity priest removed from his Miami Beach church after photos of him kissing and embracing a woman appeared in the pages of a Spanish-language magazine earlier this month, has left the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami to join the Episcopal church and announced that he will marry the woman he has dated for two years.
Read the whole thing at Miam Herald. You do not have to register.
You may not have followed this closely but perhaps you heard about this. The paragraph above is remarkably well written – good journalism if nothing else – because in just a couple sentences you get the picture. (I taught writing to university students for about a year. I try to recognize and acknowledge when people write well.) Catholic priest has relationship with woman. Comes to public light. Catholic priest leaves Catholic church – or does he? therein lies a rub – and joins Episcopal Church.
I have no interest in criticizing or judging Father Alberto Cutie. Really. Yeah he broke his vows. Yeah he should not have been doing that while a Catholic priest. But celibacy has got to be tough. Especially when you meet a woman you really like. Should he have left the Catholic church before pursuing this relationship? Yeah probably. But think about the practicality of that. (Counterargument below – he may have made his vows of celibacy while in this relationship. But set that aside for a moment.) If you want to leave the Catholic church in order to pursue a relationship with a woman…
Think about it. How can you even consider leaving (the “honorable” thing to do) before you have already started down that road? And are you really going to leave all that behind when you have been “dating”? One cannot terribly blame a fellow for pursuing that relationship to some extent before saying “oh man – I cannot keep doing this and remain a Catholic priest”.
Anyways. That is not what this post is about.
This post is about the Episcopal Church. And how Episcopal bishop Leo Frade of Southeast Florida has handled the matter.
“Well. What a great opportunity to kick the Catholic Church in the nuts”.
There is a certain diseased cynicism in immediately and publicly saying “Well – we would love to have this guy come join the Episcopal church. Our church allows clergy to get some”. Rank self-serving opportunism.
One wise parish priest in Baton Rouge summarized the problem in the Episcopal Church this way. “They have turned pastoral theology into dogma”.
But one wonders if this is even pastoral theology. Certainly not very pastoral toward the Catholic church or those whom Father Curie served. The reporter nails it with more good journalism:
At a press conference late Thursday afternoon, Archdiocese of Miami officials expressed disappointment in Cutié and had strong words for the Episcopal Church, especially Bishop Frade.
”This is truly a setback for ecunemical relations and cooperation between us. The Archdiocese have never made a public display when for doctrinal reasons Episcopal priests have joined the Catholic Church and sought ordination,” said Archbishop John Favalora. He said he had not heard from Frade about the transition and had not spoken to Cutié since May 5, adding that Cutié never told the archbishop he wanted to get married.
Great quote. “We don’t made a big public display when your guys join us. But when one of us joins you… you rub our faces in it”. Favalora is a real Christian bishop who refrains from calling Bishop Frade… a jerk.
But one more point. And I posted this over at Midwest Conservative Journal (which I no longer visit much – just interested in other issues right now):
