Fr. Cutié writes book, and raises eyebrows
Padre Alberto Cutié releases a book and reflects on the Roman Catholic church, falling in love, and his own journey of faith.
Padre Alberto Cutié eyes sins and sensibility in new book
New York Daily News
When photos of Miami priest Alberto Cutié frolicking on a South Florida beach with his girlfriend surfaced in 2009, it was more than a clergyman caught in a sex scandal.Padre Alberto, as he's known, was a household name in U.S. Latin enclaves and Latin America, a handsome TV and radio personality, columnist, best-selling author and spiritual adviser to Hispanic celebrities.
"My story wasn't unique, my story was public," says Cutié, via phone from his new parish, the Church of the Resurrection, an Episcopal Church in Biscayne Park where he now lives as a married priest and new dad.
"One hundred thousand Roman Catholic priests have married in the last 50 years or more," he adds, "but because I was such a public persona, I had a responsibility that others don't to tell it like it is."
Priest finds new love with wife, loses love for church
From RNS
The Rev. Albert Cutie saw a lot of things in his 14 years as a Catholic priest while church officials looked the other way: priests who got caught with prostitutes, priests who lived with their gay partners, and men of the cloth who kept one bed in the rectory and another with their mistress.“In the Roman Catholic Church, a scandal is not really a scandal until it becomes public,” Cutie writes in his new book, “Dilemma: A Priest’s Struggle with Faith and Love,” which hits stores Tuesday (Jan. 4).
My own understanding and experience is that in the RC church scandal is not so much a matter of what you do but what you get caught doing. What this does to people is that it de-forms them and creates lots of folks who are excellent "sneaks" who lead double lives. Rather than outrage, I just feel really sad about that. Father Alberto has a unique opportunity to call the whole church to honesty: a deep, mature, and sincere honesty.
Posted by Peter Pearson![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 5, 2011 11:03 PM
Yeah, w/ the Popoids, there's a heavy emphasis on "not scandalizing the faithful".
You know the animal science work of Temple Grandin? In her work w/ cattle, she talks about the sort of things that scare them: not the actual slaughterhouse, but certain lights, or shadows, or hanging objects, which can startle them.
This pretty much describes the Vatican's view of the laity (and everyone not, y'know, themselves). It's not about the actual reality of human nature (any kind of gayness, that one may have a call to holy orders while still needing/loving a spouse, anything to do w/ the female body, etc). It's having those realities SEEN by the laity, when practiced by their betters (the clergy, esp. the hierarchy).
The Vatican's the cattle drivers, everyone else are the cows (I'm not saying they see us all as hamburgers, but then again... :-X)
How dare a cowboy like Cutie explain the system to the cattle?! [Worse, acting as if we cows can UNDERSTAND our betters for the animals THEY (also) are?]
JC Fisher
Posted by tgflux![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2011 12:25 AM