(Episcopal) Bishop who took in Alberto Cutié unafraid of making waves (UNADULTERATED BARF ALERT)

Miami Herald ^ | 6/8/2009 | JAWEED KALEEM

[markomalley]

It was the made-for-TV ending to a weeks-long saga of fame and faith: Alberto Cutié, the telegenic priest embroiled in a magazine-photo scandal, would leave the Roman Catholic church to become an Episcopalian -- and would marry his girlfriend of two years.

But when Cutié's new bishop, the Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, stood inside Miami's Trinity Cathedral to announce the news to dozens of international reporters, he created his own waves.

The ''Inquisition is over,'' Frade said in widely broadcast remarks after Catholic Archbishop John C. Favalora admonished him for a disrespectful ``public display.''

The style is typical of Frade's nine-year tenure, say those who know him well: casual, off-the-cuff and, to some, a bit too in-your-face.

For three weeks in May, the 65-year-old Cuban American became the face of the traditionally white Episcopal church, granting dozens of interviews about Cutié, who has kept a low profile since preaching at an Episcopal church in Biscayne Park last month.

The first Hispanic to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, Frade has campaigned for gay rights, expanded church missions to the Caribbean and the Americas and, as his courtship of Cutié shows, is intent on recruiting Hispanics to the Episcopal fold.

''He has an entirely different personality,'' says Calvin O. Schofield Jr., a former Navy chaplain who preceded Frade as South Florida bishop. ``He's expanded the influence of the church.''

Born in Havana and raised a Methodist, Frade (pronounced frah-day) left the island in 1960. As a junior at Asbury College in Kentucky, he saw racism first-hand and took part in civil rights campaigns -- a move that cost him his scholarship. He joined his recently exiled family in New York and, attracted by the traditional worship style, began attending Episcopal services in the city while working as a bank teller and later an airline ticket agent.

In 1969, Frade moved to Miami and formally became an Episcopalian at Little Havana's All Saint's church. After studying theology at Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University) and the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., he became an assistant priest at Wynwood's Holy Cross Church in 1977.

INVITED GANGS

To increase membership, Frade went door-to-door in the neighborhood, even inviting rival gangs to worship. That hands-on approach has earned the respect of the South Florida clergy he leads today.

''He knows how Hispanics feel. It's a great blessing to have him,'' said the Rev. Rafael Garcia, a Cuban-American priest who built a Spanish-language congregation of 200 at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Coral Gables in little more than a year. Garcia's new assignment: the Church of the Holy Comforter, a small Hispanic congregation in Little Havana where Frade also plans to dispatch Cutié.

After Frade was elected to lead the 83 Episcopal churches from Jensen Beach to Key West in 2000, he made an odd admission to staffers at his downtown Miami office.

''The first thing you need to know,'' he quipped, ``is that I'm a convicted felon.''

In 1980, he and Joe Morris Doss, now retired as New Jersey's bishop, were priests at Grace Episcopal Church in New Orleans, where they were deluged with calls for help after Fidel Castro opened the port of Mariel to Cubans wishing to leave.

They convinced the church to buy an old World War II submarine chaser they christened God's Mercy, teamed with a United Methodist minister from Miami and set out on a rescue mission. By that time, President Jimmy Carter had outlawed the boatlift, and God's Mercy slipped through a U.S. Coast Guard flotilla to dock at Mariel. As their 437 passengers joyfully disembarked in Key West in June 1980, Doss and Frade were arrested and charged with trading with the enemy. They were convicted, but a federal appeals court overturned the verdict in 1983.

''We couldn't let those people in trouble stay,'' said Frade, adding that the experience informed his commitment to human rights.

Elected bishop of Honduras in 1984, he helped political refugees from Nicaragua gain haven. Over the next 16 years, he grew the Episcopal community there from 14 churches to 83 and from 1,000 members to 20,000.

''We were in the right place at the right time,'' he said of Honduras, where he built churches in unserved rural areas and brought aboard Honduran clergy, including the current bishop.

EXPANSION GOALS

When he arrived in South Florida, Frade had a similarly ambitious goal: to build the diocese by 65,000 members and 20 churches by 2010. But the church is not ''growing as much as we'd like,'' he admits. With six months to go, the number of churches is unchanged and membership has grown by 3,000 to 38,000. His new target date: 2020.

Diversifying membership is another challenge. A choir of Hispanic, African-American, West Indian and Haitian South Floridians sang at his installation, a hopeful sign for a bishop who is fluent in Spanish, French and Portuguese. Today, the diocese has 15 Spanish-language congregations, up from nine in 2000, and three with Creole worship, an increase of one.

Frade has taken the church on the road, forming alliances with Episcopal dioceses as near as Cuba and the Dominican Republic and as far away as Madagascar. Each summer, he and his wife of 23 years, Diana, lead volunteers on a mission trip to Our Little Roses Ministries, a residential program they founded for at-risk girls in Honduras.

Frade has been an outspoken proponent of gay rights. In 2003, he was the only one of Florida's five Episcopal bishops to support the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as bishop of New Hampshire. ''You have to understand that I am the bishop of Key West, the bishop of South Beach, of Fort Lauderdale,'' he told The Herald at the time.

Hundreds of South Florida Episcopalians broke away in protest, aligning themselves with the more conservative Anglican Mission in America.

''That was a difficult period of time for the church. There was internal soul-searching,'' said Nelson Famadas, a real estate developer and friend of the Frades who is an advisor to the Diocese of Puerto Rico. ``There has been a process of healing. The bishop has a capacity to make people come together.''

Last fall, Frade urged parishioners to vote against Amendment 2, the state constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage, calling it his ``Christian duty.''

''I tend to be much more conservative, but he supports me,'' said the Rev. Eric Kahl of St. Philip's in Coral Gables. ``I don't preach that from the pulpit, but if the bishop does, God bless.''

[ken5050]

FYI..The way TEC counts “attendence” and membership rivals ACORN and the Dems...I suspect that it’s WAAAAAY down...and also that contributions are even more off..

[OpeEdMunkey]

I don’t know about the priest, but the girl’s kind of a Cutie.

[bronxville]

“The ‘’Inquisition is over,’’ Frade said in widely broadcast remarks after Catholic Archbishop John C. Favalora admonished him for a disrespectful ``public display.’’”

I hope this is a lesson to Archbishop Favalora that Ecumenicism is a two way street. “The Inquisition is over.” Ha! I’ll bet that never came up when they were having their little Ecumenical pow wows. Sorry, but I’m tired of compromising our traditions for the sake of Ecumenism.