Fr. Alberto Cutie, a Catholic priest who was caught by the media with a woman on a beach, announced that he is joining the Episcopal Church and pursuing ordination in that community. I’m sure the folks at TEC are overjoyed: they’ve gotten a youngish, fairly famous, good looking, and charismatic Hispanic priest (When I was in TEC, getting Hispanics in the church was sort of a holy grail). However, I’m not going to use this post to criticize the Episcopal Church. Rather, I want to say caveat emptor.
Here’s a guy who broke one of his most sacred vows and two weeks later left the Church where he devoted most of his life for a community he probably knows little about; but hey, they’re like Catholicism but without the rules and their ministers can get married! Although the media seems to assume that marriage=problem solved for priests who have behaved badly, real life is not so simple. Anyone who would so readily do what Fr. Cutie has done should send up any number of red flags. Celibacy is hard for sure. But, this development goes beyond celibacy to issues of commitment and TEC may find itself a victim of Fr. Cutie down the line.
My advice: go slow and make sure the guy really wants to be an Episcopalian, not just find a place to continue his famous ministry and get married. My bet: he’ll end up being an independent pastor in a few years. Regardless, he needs our prayers.
Update: Young Fogey has some good insights on this topic:
What happened to the old WASP gentlemanly values of keeping promises and honouring commitments (duty)? The man freely took a vow and disobeyed it and his bishop. Why would another Christian bishop consider bringing him on board? Looks like nothing but the upper-middle-class religion of self-esteem and other feelings. (That and anything handy to hit Rome.)
Let’s see: Someone had taken a sacred vow, decided to break it for an illicit love affair, and now is in the Episcopal (Anglican) Church. Oh well…Henry VIII did it first!
It always amazes me that folks who have not lived the celibate life are the first ones to criticize somebody who choses not to continue being celibate. Let him who is without sin be the first one to cast a stone. Besides I do not consider Fr. Cutie’s love to be a sin, its more sinful to ask people to deny their sexuality. Go Fr. and do not let simple minded people stop you from ministering.
Yours
A catholic priest
My biggest concern is Cutie’s decision to leave the Church entirely for another, instead of seeking a releasing from his vows by his TRUE Bishop. I think its terrible of you “A Catholic Priest” to call people who adhere to Church Teaching as “simple minded”. Will you take MY opinion then? I am celibate and I am not even a priest. I am gay and remain chaste for love of Jesus and in obedience to His One True Church. I believe that what Fr. Cutie has done is wrong, scandalous, irresponsible and selfish. What do you have to say to that “A Catholic Priest”? Am I also “simple minded”?
I do not criticize Cutie deciding he could not be celibate. It’s for some people and not for others. And if he found himself in love with a woman, then he could have gotten out of his vows, I believe. Frankly, I am for having the option of either celibacy or marriage for clergy, as in the East.
What I DO criticize him for is leaving the Catholic Faith for the heretical and schismatic episcopal church which has ceased to be Christian. If you, padre, whoever you are, think THAT was a good idea, then maybe YOU shouldn’t be in the Catholic priesthood either.
PS to “padre”,
If you were referring to anyone on this site as simpleminded then you’re the one being an ass. Most of us here are highly educated, speak many languages, are theologically trained. Just one thing…we are orthodox in belief. What’s your excuse?
Hobbit,
Exactly. We all gave him the benefit of the doubt on the celibacy thing. It is leaving the Church that moved us to criticism.
One thing is for sure…the Episcopal Church just came into the radar screen of Hispanics, for good or ill! Fr. Cutie is both well known and beloved of many.
I, and many parishioners who came into TEC last year, have found it to be a welcoming and good church home! I pray he may find it so as well!
Blessings
seraph
I think I would have found this story to be a bit more compelling had he crossed the Thames prior to getting busted on the beach, rather than in the midst of scandal. Of course, during the Reformation many priests simply married their “housekeepers” after becoming Lutherans, so I guess we lack the moral high ground here to say much.
It is interesting, however, that I have read comments from quite a few Anglicans who are worried at best and pissed off at worse over the actions of TEC Bp. Fraede (sp?) and his quick inclusion of Cutie.
Having only left the Episcopal Church late last September to “swim the Tiber,” and having now seen several good Anglo-catholic Episcopal clergy (including formerly-Episcopal Bishop Steenson of Texas) move in the same direction, I find it interesting that those goind in precisely the opposite direction seem not infrequently to seem somewhat short in the integrity department. Lest anyone mistake my meaning, I am referring to the apparent facts that Fr. Cutié seems to have taken about two years to do what honesty and conscience suggest should have been done much earlier—either renounce his orders or take his leave from the Catholic Church after informning his Bishop that he was renouncing his vows.
When one can no longer keep one’s promises, I think that personal integrity requires that one make every effort formally to inform those to whom one has made them, and then take such other steps as conscience requires.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
Marriage is also no picnic. And it is also a vowed life, a vocation that needs to be embraced even in “those moments.” Those who have taken vows of celibacy can be assured that remaining faithful to one woman is not so very different than remaining faithful to their own state of life. Love the Cross, man.
Whatever happens, we certainly must pray for Fr. Cutie. I wonder if he isn’t moving too quickly and if he will regret his decision. I can’t imagine it would be easy to be happily married to a person that is symbolic of breaking one’s freely-chosen vow.
Robb,
You get at some of my main concerns. I think the right thing to do (and I am obviously not in the situation myself) is to take some time off, go on a retreat for a month, or something like that, to discern quietly what he should do, away from the controversy and spotlight. And then, once it has calmed down, make a decision from there. This seems kind of sudden. My best guess is things have been brewing for years.
I was under the impression Fr. Cutie would have to endure a waiting period before the Episcopal church would allow him to serve as a priest. This I believe would provide him with an opportunity to think and reflect on the choices he has made.
On a side note, he appears to have re-written the spin doctor playbook on how to turn a negative story into a positive one. I thought only Bill Clinton could do that.
As I posted on another board, TEC was founded on the basis of the Theology of the pelvis, it’s no wonder Cutie was drawn to it.
[...] we’ll call it an even exchange for Fr. Cutie… Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Women Priests Become CatholicWisdom From [...]
4wrdthnkndad, to give Bishop Frade credit he is imposing a waiting period on Mr Cutié (out of prudence and I imagine ecumenical respect… it’s almost a sort of fitting penance for him), which the latter ruined by preaching vested in church that Sunday for the media. (He knows the dumb majority will think he’s still an active priest.) If he wanted to minister, even as a Protestant, he could have done so quietly after waiting. This sorry mess makes me wonder why really he wants to be a priest. This seems vain and desperate, from somebody who wants to be clergy for the wrong reasons: Padre Alberto, superstar. My guess is he’ll last a little longer in the news cycle thanks to his and his fiancée’s attractiveness – they’re natural outlaw folk heroes – then fade into oblivion like Matthew Fox and others.
I don’t think for a second he would have done this if he hadn’t got caught. Under normal circumstances it would have hurt his standing among Hispanics.
Also, as I’ve written elsewhere, if the liberal Protestants think Hispanics will join them because of this they’re mistaken. ‘Bad Catholics’ are not liberal Protestants or Modernist RCs who think they can change the faith, even though they don’t practise or necessarily agree with that faith.
I think padre Alberto and his wife have one thing in common…they both like a man in uniform.
I find it mind boggling that this ex-Catholic priest says he always saw himself as married. He joined the priesthood when he was 18. If he always saw himself as married, and knew his church required their priest to abstain from sexual behavior, why didn’t he just quit?
I also find his immediate change from one church to another so soon as a sign of immaturity. It couldn’t be because he wanted to marry his mistress in a church setting, because he married her in City Hall. I think the priest threw a tantrum because he couldn’t get his way in the Catholic Church; the Episcopal Church, soothed his childish brow and told him it was OK.
I think this guy has a huge ego, which requires constant exposure in the media and behind a pulpit. Anywhere he goes, whatever church he attends, he will expect his role to be one of constant exposure and adulation. I wonder, is that what Jesus meant by “Shepard?”