Posted on 05/09/2009 7:10:56 AM PDT by IbJensen
Speaking extensively to reporters for the first time since a celibacy scandal broke, the Rev. Alberto Cutié said he is considering marriage and a family.
After confessing his love for the mystery woman he was caught with on a South Florida beach, the Rev. Alberto Cutié says he is ready to consider taking the relationship to the next level.
Marriage and children are a definite possibility, he told The Miami Herald late Friday.
''I'm not going to rush into marriage. I know all about that,'' said the man who has counseled countless couples preparing for weddings. ``But I would like to have a family and at the same time serve God.''
Does that mean he will leave the priesthood?
''My struggle has gone on for close to a year. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when,'' he said. ``You cannot be a married priest in the Roman Catholic Church. I have friends -- Episcopalian bishops, Baptists, friends in the American Bible Society -- and they have shown me that it is possible to do both.''
Cutié said he finally broke his silence Friday, speaking first to Univisión co-anchor Teresa Rodriguez, because he wanted to protect his girlfriend. She has been identified in media reports as Ruhama Buni Canellis, 35, a divorced mother living in Miami Beach. Cutié would not confirm her name, saying he wanted to protect her privacy and noting she is not a public figure.
''There have been so many rumors, and the paparazzi outside her door,'' Cutié said. He added that he's sure he wasn't set up by his girlfriend or anybody else, as many have speculated, when he ended up in a liplock -- and worse -- in the pages of the Mexican magazine TVnotas. ``People have gone as far as to say that I set it up. That would really be stupid. I didn't set it up and she didn't either.''
Earlier Friday, Cutié told Rodriguez he has few regrets about engaging in the relationship, even though the romance has jeopardized his mediagenic career.
''Do I feel bad, horrible, about it? . . . No,'' he said emphatically during the televised interview, adding: ``I will never say I'm sorry for loving a woman.''
The interview, excerpts of which were broadcast Friday evening, comprised the first extensive public comments from Cutié since the scandal over the illicit liaison exploded on Tuesday.
Univisión's viewers nationwide were treated to the unusual sight of a beloved Catholic priest, in his clerical collar and black suit, confessing his love for a woman to the world.
Cutié, 40, made it plain he was not seeking absolution, even though he did say he felt sorry to have hurt and disappointed God and his followers, and worried about the consequences of breaking his vow of celibacy.
''I can say, sincerely, that she's a woman I love,'' he said in Spanish, noting he had known the woman for nearly 10 years. He first saw her in church, Cutié said.
''From the moment I saw her, I knew I liked her,'' he said. He did not specify when the romantic relationship began.
He did not discuss the relationship in any detail in the excerpts broadcast Friday. The full interview will be broadcast Tuesday night at 10.
The Archdiocese of Miami had no reaction to the interview. ''No further comment,'' spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said.
Cutié is scheduled to appear on CBS' The Early Show at 7 a.m. Monday. Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez, a former anchor at Miami's WFOR-CBS 4, will do the interview.
Canellis, meanwhile, issued a statement Friday afternoon pleading with the media to leave her alone, but she did not disclose the nature of her relationship with the priest.
''As a single mother, I ask that the members of the media respect my privacy and the privacy of my 14-year-old son,'' the statement said.
Canellis, originally from Guatemala, is a divorced mother with custody of her 14-year-old son, public records show.
She and her ex-husband, David Hope Norton, have been in and out of court dealing with child-support issues since the 1996 divorce.
Cutié was relieved on Tuesday of his duties at his parish church, St. Francis de Sales in South Beach, and at the Archdiocese of Miami's radio and television arm, which he oversaw.
In the Univisión interview, Cutié insisted the sabbatical was voluntary. In response to Rodriguez's remark about his wearing his collar, Cutié noted he remains a priest, and that even those who leave the church are still considered priests.
Cutié accepted blame for the scandal and acknowledged that in hindsight he might have handled the matter differently.
''I am the only one responsible for that,'' he said. ``It was never my intention to hurt anyone.''
He said he suspected photographers had caught the couple on the beach, which he said was a solitary spot north of Miami.
The controversy became public this week when Spanish-language magazine TVnotas published the compromising pictures. The magazine's cover showed the priest on his back in blue shorts with a long-brown-haired woman in a dark bathing suit wrapping her legs around him.
Public reaction to Cutié's removal from his parish and the published pictures, especially in South Florida, has been strong. Though many Catholics have expressed indignation, the scandal has prompted debate over the church's strict policy of celibacy for priests, with many people supporting the cleric and criticizing the church's stance.
On Friday night, after broadcast of the interview, a handful of people showed up outside Cutié's parish church to show their support for the embattled priest.
Virginia Londoño, who also attended a larger support rally Thursday, said she still believed after hearing his explanations that Cutié did nothing wrong. He still has the right to wear the collar, she said.
But Noemi Guzman, a Cutié supporter, said the priest erred in not publicly confessing sooner. ''The people would have accepted it better,'' she said.
Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora, in a prepared statement earlier this week, said Cutié violated the church's position on celibacy.
Experts in Canon Law, the internal rules of the Catholic Church, say it is extremely unlikely the archbishop will allow Cutié to stay an active priest while he is in a relationship.
Cutié told Univisión on Friday that he succumbed to human passion only after long efforts not to.
''I'm a man,'' he said. ``Under the cassock there are pants.
I'll bet Jay-weed had a thrill writing this story.
''I'm a man,'' he said. ``Under the cassock there are pants.
Forget Jesus Christ and the vows taken just think about what's behind the pants. Behavior not very cute, disgraced Fr. Cutie!
He needs to leave the Priesthood PRONTO!! Look out Episcopalians!!
What I find more outrageous than the actions of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, who succumbed to weaknesses we all possess, is that the impassioned speeches and cries for or against change are coming from those whose lives will not be directly affected by such a decision.
Just another item on Satan’s agenda.
Hell, he's nothing to the Episcopalians. To irk them you'd have to be having a homosexual affair with a goat to whom you were already related. And even that's under consideration.
Why is this even in the new?
Maybe b/c I’m not Catholic, I don’t see why this is such a huge deal, but if he took an oath and hasn’t held up his end of the deal, then he should go ahead and resign. He can be married and a pastor at a Protestant church if he still feels called to serve God. His comment about the Episcopalians was entertaining—they’re the last ones I’d go to for relationship counsel!
With everything that's happened after Vatican II the novus ordo church has become a cafeteria-style religion.
Forgetting one's vows is becoming old hat in the Church subsequent to Vatican II (as stated above) and priests feel they can forget what was promised at ordination and walk away.
Personally, he should be stoned. < / s >
If he had “feelings” for this woman, he could have left the priesthood before scandalizing thousands with his sinful behavior — after all, didn't he hear confessions of those who committed adultery and fornication and preach about temptations and sin?
Now Cutie causes greater scandal by attempting to justify his behavior by saying it was caused by normal compulsions. Christ Himself resisted Satan's temptations and triumphed as God made Man to offer hope and salvation for all mankind.
I'll pray for this priest that he might recognize his sinful ways and repents, but I doubt he will do so. He is only digging the hole deeper for himself by his public proclamations...
I agree, and those on this thread feigning indignation are forgetting about the planks in their own eyes.
The Pope deserves more condemnation for his tacit approval of abortion by allowing the genocidal Catholic politicians to remain in the church.
I'm sorry, his name just cracks me up.
“Forgetting one’s vows is becoming old hat”
I’m Catholic, yet I don’t always behave in accordance with the teachings of the Church. That’s not news either...
Oh brother.
Why do people even care about this? Would it make the news if he was caught with a DUDE on South Beach? Doubt it.
It appears Father Cutie` has forgotten to do both. He is in need of prayers.
Actually, the Episcopalians would find it scandalous that a priest gave up his vows for a WOMAN! That is hopelessly old fashioned. Now, if he wanted to get married to another man, he would be qualified to be a Bishop in many mainline Protestant denominations.
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