Posted on 05/11/2009 10:28:43 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
The Rev. Alberto Cutié, in his first English-language television interview since photos surfaced showing him frolicking with a woman on the beach, apologized profusely to the church and his fellow Catholics.
Though the photos have reignited the debate over priests and celibacy, he said he still believed in the vow.
''I don't want to be the anti-celibacy priest,'' he said. ``It's a debate in our society.''
Cutié appeared on CBS' The Early Show, telling anchor Maggie Rodriguez he had a romantic relationship for about two years, though he had known the woman much longer.
Unlike his interview with Spanish-language network Univisión, Cutié dressed casually for the CBS interview.
Missing in this interview: his white collar.
Cutié sought counseling from other priests, who have helped him deal with his feelings and said he was motivated by love.
The photos, which appeared in the Spanish-language magazine TVNotas, were taken on an isolated stretch of beach a few months ago. A lifeguard who works with the paparazzi alerted them he was there, Cutié said.
''It was imprudent,'' he said. ``It was stupid.''
Cutié said he's in the process of deciding what to do next.
When asked about marriage, Cutié responded: ``I think I need to pray.''
The woman has been identified in media reports as Ruhama Buni Canellis, 35, a divorced mother living in Miami Beach, but Cutié has declined to confirm her identity.
Cutié said he is not yet ready to talk about whether he will leave the church.
After the photos surfaced, the archdiocese stripped Cutié of his duties at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church on Miami Beach, but said ultimately it's up to Cutié whether he returns.
Alberto, maybe you were meant to be a Priest. No one will think the less of you if you if you leave the priesthood to get married to a woman. Well, unless you have one of those mothers who thinks your the ticket into Heaven.
That is what the press wants you to think. There will be no debate. The Pope just reconsecrated himself to a life of celibacy this past week at Vespers in Jordan. So, this is just more hogwash.
Breaking a sacred vow is a serious sin.
When Priests sin, change the rules, when people in the congregation sin change the rules.
Unfortunately for all concerned Gods rules don’t change.
There are also plenty of Christian denominations that allow for married clergy.
He’s already broken his vow. Now, the question is will he betray the woman as well. Go for the twofer, as it were.
And therefore unforgivable?
It’s not like he was molesting little boys.
Broken? Waddayagot, film? Maybe he just seriously bent the vow. Look up the difference between the vow of celibacy and the vow of chastity.
This is a matter for Fr. Cutie (OK an unfortunate surname) and his confessor. Now that it's in the newspaper, the Bishop is in on it, too.
Let's give the guy a chance, ok? It's a scandal. Not a catastrophe. I recommend a year on bread and water in a Trappist Monastery.
I am not a priest, bishop, or Roman Catholic, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.
No, only sins agains the Holy Spirit are unforgivable.
His vow to the Church has been broken but can be repaired. Adultery with this woman is not a vow.
Some seem to forget priests are men... with a higher calling, but men.
And the devil is busy.
Love the sinner, hate the sin.
Peter cut off the high priest servants ear... did he get better? Sure, he went on to deny the Lord three times (as foretold by the Lord, whew), he repented... weeping bitterly. Shall we get into the difference of repentance, see Judas, he chose despair and hung himself. James and John (the sons of thunder), wanted to wipe out Samaria... they felt the people weren’t hospitable. Then the Magdalene, whom he was close to ... should I say more?
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
As Paul said, “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”
The law is a mirror, yet not a curse... grace a blessing.
Curses and blessings are in the scriptures for a reason.
Some imagine as soon as they believe, they are perfect; Be disappointed, for it’s the beginning of a great battle... a daily struggle; When we examine God’s word, we see more sin within us. We work it out with fear and trembling.
Luke:
He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
10
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
11
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.
12
I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
13
But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
14
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Before this a parable of the widow on the need of persistent prayer; After, a contrast using children for those who think they lay claim to God’s favor by merit... instead of the receptivity of a child.
Humility, prayer, forgiveness.
But for the grace of God go I.
As a Catholic, I believe and fully accept the teaching of the Church is God's rule according to the loosing and binding stated in Matthew 16:18 and many other passages.
New Advent states:
Celibacy is the renunciation of marriage implicitly or explicitly made, for the more perfect observance of chastity, by all those who receive the Sacrament of Orders in any of the higher grades. The character of this renunciation, as we shall see, is differently understood in the Eastern and in the Western Church. Speaking, for the moment, only of Western Christendom, the candidates for orders are solemnly warned by the bishop at the beginning of the ceremony regarding the gravity of the obligation which they are incurring. He tells them:
You ought anxiously to consider again and again what sort of a burden this is which you are taking upon you of your own accord. Up to this you are free. You may still, if you choose, turn to the aims and desires of the world (licet vobis pro artitrio ad caecularia vota transire). But if you receive this order (of the subdiaconate) it will no longer be lawful to turn back from your purpose. You will be required to continue in the service of God, and with His assistance to observe chastity and to be bound for ever in the ministrations of the Altar, to serve who is to reign.
By stepping forward despite this warning, when invited to do so, and by co-operating in the rest of the ordination service, the candidate is understood to bind himself equivalently by a vow of chastity. He is henceforth unable to contract a valid marriage, and any serious transgression in the matter of this vow is not only a grievous sin in itself but incurs the additional guilt of sacrilege.
Correct. But WHOA there, Hoss! We don't even know if they got to first base. Nothin' to this. Move along. They were caught on the beach, not in flagrante delicto. Amen.
Even if there is sand in the vestments, I suggest we do not give the lad the Abelard operation until after the trial.
"O Lord, make me to be chaste. Not just right now."
"I hunger for strange flesh."
St. Augustine
Which is probably why they named that sexy beach town in FL after him.
Agreed. I was responding to the poster who intimated that this priest, by having a relationship(kissing on the beach which has been confirmed) with this divorced woman constituted some sort of binding vow that relegated his priestly vow of Chasity somehow irreparable.
Even a piest can go to the beach with a woman. It wouldn't be news and he wouldn't have to make any decisions. He has all but admitted a an afair. (With a divorcee). He is a disgrace, NOT for human failings, but for only atmitting it when caught. How VERY Clintonian.
How long would it have continued, with him giving priestly advice on TV, if he HADN'T been caught?
Amen. Either way he and others are in my prayers.
As Our Lord said later in Luke, after the rich man who deemed himself following precepts couldn’t take the step of selling all he had to follow him. Afterwhich he said, “It is easier to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the house of God”.
Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
28Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29”I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”
And Paul in 1st Corinthians...
I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. 9But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Then later...
I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.
33
But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,
34
and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
35
I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
That's really his name? No wonder he had so much trouble keeping his vow.
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