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Priest will break with one of two loves
Alberto Cutié, the Catholic priest embroiled in a celibacy controversy after photos were published of him frolicking on the beach with a woman, appeared Monday on CBS’ The Early Show and apologized to the Catholic community for breaking his solemn church vow. During the interview, Cutié admitted he is conflicted over what to do next, as he loves his girlfriend but he is also deeply committed to his work in the church. He is now mulling whether to break up with his girlfriend, or whether to break with the church so he can marry her. In the meantime, the Archdiocese of Miami has relieved Cutié of his duties, spurring many of his parishioners to rally around him.
Days after the Rev. Alberto Cutié admitted he had a romantic relationship with a woman, an overwhelming number of Miami-Dade Catholics still view him favorably, a poll conducted for The Miami Herald found.
Nearly 80 percent of those polled had a favorable view of Cutié, with 10 percent saying they looked at him unfavorably.
Cutié, who now finds himself at the center of the celibacy debate, said that while ”celibacy is good, and that it’s a good commitment to God,” he believes it should be optional. And he’s not alone: According to The Miami-Herald survey, 74 percent of Catholics surveyed opposed the prohibition on priests marrying or having any type of sexual relations. Is it time for the Catholic Church to revisit its policy banning priests from marriage?
back to top14 Comments to “Priest will break with one of two loves”
If she marries him and he has no vocational skills beyond pastoring, I foresee a bad outcome. Let him leave the church, convert to Lutheran and marry the woman. Then later if he still loves the church he can re-enter as a married convert.
Still, what sort of gal monkeys around with a priest, knowing full well his restrictions?
He may be set up for heartbreak and rejection from both gal and church
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Would parishes be obligated to support large priest families? Well, yep. But better that than paying off victims of homosexual pedophilia performed by men in priest’s collars, no?
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The celibacy rule for priests has been at the heart of centuries of deviancy, perversion, intrigue and evil. The Bible calls it heresy along with the passe rule about eating meat on Fridays and other dietary laws …
“Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” 1 Thess 4:3,4
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“Is it time for the Catholic Church to revisit its policy banning priests from marriage?”
Because of this guy? As if he is the first? This has been going on a long time, but most priests don’t write books about the way they’ve cheated on their vows and ask for sympathy. While I would agree with Sawgunner that it’s preferable to pay for a family than for a priest assaulting young boys, doesn’t the RCC consider the priesthood a vocation, something that one is called to do? I don’t think the RCC will change its fundamental belief.
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If this the guy I think he is, he is a very good looking guy. I know some women who called him Fr. Cutie (without the ‘) and Fr. What-a-waste. I imagine he had a lot more offers than the average priest.
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I’m with NJL on this one.
He’s certainly not the first priest that has ever cheated on his vows, but I believe that those who do often leave their vocations quietly. Writing books about it and publicly seeking sympathy seem pretty self-serving.
The RCC isn’t going to change a fundamental belief because of one guy, and if anything will take a firmer stand with him because he is doing it so flagrantly.
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The RCC won’t change their position solely because of this case, but they might if their priest shortage continues. I’ve read that church leaders encounter thousands upon thousands of young men in school who they believe love God, love the Church and have the skills and temperament to be priests, and even want to be priests … but also want to marry and have families, and so do not enter the priesthood.
I think the Bible says that celibacy is gift, bestowed only on a few; making it a vocational requirement is, I think, a mistake.
But then, I am not RC, so I doubt they care much what I think about it.
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JOKE TIME:
A young monk arrives in a monastery where he is put to work as a copyist.
After a few days, he notices that the monks making copies of the scriptures are all working from copies — not the original. This alarms the young monk because he thinks of how easy it would be for mistakes to be repeated. And so he goes to the Head Monk and expresses his concerns.
“Yes, brother,” replies the Head Monk, “you have a valid point. But this is the way we’ve always done it. Still, I better check to make sure there are no errors.”
So off he goes to the cellar where he spends the entire night carefully consulting the original scriptures. In the morning all of the brothers go down to the cellar and find the Head Monk crying.
“What’s the matter?” they ask.
Between the loudest of sobs, he groans: “The word is celebrate!”
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Sawgunner posted:
“Let him leave the church, convert to Lutheran and marry the woman. Then later if he still loves the church he can re-enter as a married convert.”
Seriously? You advocate someone twisting their way around to getting what they desire like this, even though doing what you suggest would show a complete lack of integrity and character?
That you would suggest that to anyone is sad, that you would do so when the man in question is a Priest, and thereby supposed to be a Christian is downright appalling.
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Some of you have said that the RCC won’t change a fundamental belief. I certainly hope that is true, however, I don’t think celibacy is a “fundamental belief”. It’s been their practice for hundreds of years, but COULD be changed.
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Kristin: Is it time for the Catholic Church to revisit its policy banning priests from marriage?
Frank: Absolutely.
But not — I repeat, not — because of the current opinion of Catholics.
Rather, they must do this in order to be true to Scripture, and to place church tradition in submission to it (rather than continuing to stubbornly insist that church tradition is equally as authoritative as the Bible).
Of course, other passages teach us that church officers are to be the husband of one wife. Yet Rome insists that priests remain celibate.
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Yes, it could be changed, but I think they would bring in lay people to do a lot of the priest’s work before they would change the celibacy rule. They believe they have biblical support for this rule — Paul.
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“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”" – Genesis 2:18
Like Steve said, celibacy is a gift given to a few, but for the majority , it’s still not good to be alone, which is why God created women.
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Aren’t there ways that he could serve in the church without being a priest?
Or is that a Protestant church thing? There are plenty of ways he could help in my church.
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