When Priests Leave the Church. How common is Alberto Cutis journey to Protestant ministry?

America Magzine ^ | October 5, 2009 | Stephen Joseph Fichter

[Gamecock]

Earlier this year, Father Alberto Cutié, a popular radio and television personality in Miami, found himself the subject of tabloid headlines when he was photographed relaxing on the beach with a woman who turned out to be his longtime girlfriend. Shortly afterward, he announced that he was leaving the Catholic Church to become an Episcopal priest, and in June he and his girlfriend were married in a civil ceremony. The reasons Cutié gave for his conversion to the Anglican Communion were not theological in nature; his primary motivation seemed to be to free himself from the celibacy requirement that the Catholic Church demands of its Latin Rite priests.

How unique is Cutié’s story? How many other Catholic priests have left the church for another denomination in order to marry? Could Cutié’s conversion signal the beginning of another wave of men leaving the priesthood? Until November 2008, when I completed my dissertation on the transition of celibate Catholic priests into married Protestant ministry, it would have been impossible to address these questions. The data I collected over the course of a year allowed me to conduct the first-ever analysis in this field.

Though many social scientists (including my granduncle, sociologist Joseph Fichter, S.J.,) had studied the phenomenon of priests leaving ministry since the late 1960s, I could not find a single research project that dealt with this specific subset. Not even the most elementary demographic data were available. How many Catholic priests chose to become Protestant ministers? From which branch of the priesthood (diocesan or religious) did they originate? What Protestant churches did they choose to join? All of these questions were unanswered. Fifty or Five Thousand?

In his 1961 book Religion as an Occupation, Fichter noted that some “ex-priests” chose to continue their pastoral work in Protestant ministry, but cited only two examples. In Married Catholic Priests: Their History, Their Journey, Their Reflections (2004), Anthony Kowalski writes of “many” who have married and now serve in mainline churches but mentions only five Episcopalians and two Lutherans by name. Certainly there are more but no one seems to know exactly how many. Are there 50, 500, 5,000?

Thanks to information gathered from the research offices of the five mainline Protestant Churches (Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian), I was able to identify 414 such men in the United States. Following the advice of the late Dean Hoge, I did not contact the Baptist Church or any of the hundreds of small Protestant denominations, presuming that very few Catholic priests would be inclined to join them.

Nearly one-third of the 414 former Catholic priests now serving in Protestant ministry agreed to participate in my survey. Of the 131 respondents, 105 (80.2 percent) became Episcopalian, 15 (11.5 percent) Lutheran, eight (6.1 percent) Congregationalist, and three (2.3 percent) Methodist. I found a 40-year age range: the youngest was 42 and the eldest 82. Their mean age was 62.8 while the median was 64.

The “typical” participant in my study, therefore, was born around 1944. If we divide his life into seven 9-year periods, we find him immersed in Catholic devotions and rituals during the first two timeframes. His service as an altar boy and the encouragement he received from the nuns facilitated his entry into the seminary at the age of 18 in 1962. He dedicated the third period of his life, during the heyday of Vatican II, to preparing for ordination at the age of 27 in 1971. He spent the fourth phase in active Catholic ministry and struggled with his commitment to celibacy. At the age of 36 in 1980, at the beginning of the fifth period, he resigned from ministry, got married, worked for a few years in a non-ministerial job, and eventually began his journey to his new denomination. From 1989 to 2007, he served as a married Protestant minister, twice the amount of time he spent as a Catholic priest. ‘An Agonizing Decision’

Many respondents spoke at length about the critical decision-making juncture of their lives. Most described it, as did Alberto Cutié, as a heart-wrenching process. A former diocesan priest, who now serves as a Congregationalist minister, said:

I had such a nervous encounter with my bishop and with my parents. It was a period of constant headaches. It was a very difficult decision. I was so torn between Sally (pseudonym) and celibacy. When I finally resolved the dilemma, the headaches stopped… It truly was an agonizing decision. I still recall how poorly the bishop treated me. I felt that he really didn’t care about me. I remember my mother saying, “But you are one of the good ones!” I told her that I just couldn’t do it anymore. In the end, both of my parents were very supportive; I was blessed with two great parents. It was an agonizing decision especially after spending eight years in the seminary and nine years in ministry.

Once they began to doubt their commitment to celibacy, most participants began weighing the choices before them. One was to “bite the bullet” and remain a celibate Catholic priest. A second option was to seek a dispensation and thereby enter into a Catholic marriage, but in the process forfeit their beloved ministry. The third alternative, the one that Cutié and the survey respondents chose, was to renounce their Roman Catholic affiliation in order to enter ministry in another domination.

When asked why they made the transition, six out of ten respondents cited celibacy. “I joined the Episcopal Church because I wanted to have the option of being married,” one participant wrote. Some conveyed a deep attachment to the Catholic Church: “My only reason was so that I could get married. Otherwise, I would have stayed.” For the majority, becoming Protestant only occurred after they married. In general, the respondents did not resign because they disliked ministry or had failed at it. Had the pope allowed them to marry, many would have stayed. Three of the respondents stated that they would return to the Catholic priesthood today—if they could bring their wives along with them. The Congregationalist minister above spoke about his time in Catholic seminary as “the best eight years of my entire life.” He described the monks in charge of his formation as men of great kindness, role models who provided him with a solid theological education and a positive spiritual foundation. His problems began during his first assignment:

I was doing really well in my ministry, but rectory life was killing me. The pastor, who was great with the parishioners, had this notion that you need to treat the young priests harshly. He was really hard on us. He made all the rules. There was no discussion. I began to lose weight. I asked the bishop for a transfer. My second pastor was an alcoholic. Besides that, he had his ‘boyfriend’ over at the rectory so often that it made me feel uncomfortable. I asked the bishop for another transfer and this time I was assigned to a truly great pastor. He was so kind to me, and he was someone that I deeply admired. I have often thought that had Father Michael (pseudonym) been my first pastor, I might still be a Catholic priest today. . . . My main issue was with celibacy, however. I always thought that it was unjust, especially when the Pastoral Provision (permission that Pope John Paul II granted in 1980 to Episcopalian ministers to serve as married Catholic priests after their conversion) came through. I thought that such a decision was a double standard. I was battling loneliness. . . . I think that I would have stayed as a Roman Catholic priest if celibacy had been optional.

Other respondents spoke about their dislike for specific tenets of Catholic dogma. Many pointed to the publication of Humanae Vitae as a major turning point in their lives. One former diocesan priest, who is now 80 years old, said, “Humanae Vitae pushed me off the edge. I saw that act as the refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to enter the modern world.”

One of the Episcopalians in the study clearly presented what I categorized as the two main motivating factors: the pull of the “heart” issue (falling in love) and the demands of the “head” (doctrinal dissent):

During my first three years of ordained ministry as a priest, I fell in love with a woman who was the youth minister at my parish. Even though I had questioned the discipline of celibacy before, I began to seriously question and struggle with it. I began to feel that God was calling me in a different direction, that celibacy might not be my calling. Coupled with the struggle over celibacy, I seriously questioned the Roman Catholic Church’s treatment of women, laypeople and homosexuals. The establishment in Rome was becoming more rigid and moving the church backwards. The reforms of Vatican II came under fire. It came to the point where I could not imagine being happy in 20 years if I remained in ministry in the Roman Catholic Church. I felt God was calling me to pursue something else. I dreamed of finding a denomination where I could continue to minister with my wife, a gifted youth and family minister. New Church, Familiar Liturgy

When asked why they chose their current denomination, the majority of respondents spoke of the strong similarity between their present church and the Catholic Church in terms of liturgy, ministry and theology. This was especially true for the Episcopalians and seems to explain why so many of the survey respondents gravitated to the Anglican Communion. Most of those who joined the Episcopal Church said that with only minor adjustments they “felt at home” from the beginning and that they found comfort in the fact that they could hold onto their core beliefs in the Resurrection and the Eucharist. Over time they modified their views on other subjects, such as papal infallibility and women’s ordination, but many of them had already begun to question the validity of those doctrines.

Before I began the interviews, I hypothesized that diocesan priests would be overrepresented in my sample because they seem to be at greater risk for loneliness than religious order priests. (Most religious live in community, while diocesan priests often live alone in rectories because of the shortage of priests.) The survey results support this hypothesis. Based on the historical ratio of American diocesan clergy to religious, one would expect to find 61.5 percent diocesan priests in this sample; in fact, 72.3 percent of the respondents had served in diocesan ministry. (Recall that Cutié was a diocesan priest.)

Where Cutié differs from most of the men I surveyed is in the historical timing of his decision. The majority of respondents began their journey to a new church in the period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. It seems unlikely that Cutié’s example will spark another wave of priestly resignations. According to research conducted by Dean R. Hoge and Jacqueline E. Wenger in Evolving Visions of Priesthood: Changes from Vatican II to the Turn of the New Century (2003), young priests today are more theologically conservative than their immediate predecessors and are more likely therefore to embrace the church’s traditional teaching on celibacy. Questions remain, however, about how many young Catholic men have chosen lay or Protestant ministry over the Catholic priesthood because of the demands of celibacy—a fitting area of inquiry, perhaps, for another curious sociologist.

[LurkingSince'98]

they are all divorced and remarried.

I love it you get our dregs and we get your best.

AMDG

[metmom]

of all of the four Evangelicals I know who are fallen away Catholics....all are divorced and remarried to Evangelicals. proof of nothing but consistency...

So what?

A Catholic couple can be granted a church sanctioned divorce by the Catholic church if they want. All they have to do is make some bogus claim and viola, they're free to remarry.

And it may be consistency among the four people you know, but it's hardly consistency among Evangelicals as a whole.

Because here you have an Evangelical who is a former Catholic who saw the light while she was still single and moral issues were never a factor, much to the chagrin of FRoman Catholics on this board.

I know they like to and want to believe differently, but they're the ones bearing false witness when they make unsubstantiated accusations.

[metmom]

I love it you get our dregs and we get your best.

Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

God is a God of forgiveness, restoration and renewal. He makes all things new and makes us new creatures in Christ.

He does not treat us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities, but as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards us and as far as the east is from the west, so far does he separate us from our transgressions. Our sin and lawless deeds He remembers no more.

Too bad the Catholic church doesn't understand the love of God and what forgiveness is all about. They hold people accountable for mistakes they made long after they're over and done.

You can sneer and show scorn and contempt all you want. But if you really understood the new birth and being a new creature in Christ, you wouldn't sit in judgment of others like you do.

[Gamecock]

***I love it you get our dregs***

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17

We’ll take your sinners. That’s the way Jesus operates.

[WVKayaker]

...plus they are the most poorly catechized people I have ever met, really poor examples of Catholics...but great examples of Evangelicals.

Well, surprise, surprise. Evangelicals are poorly catechized.

The RC catechism is a prime example of indoctrination. Rote and ritual are the extant features.

Evangelicals (which may include Protestants and Roman Catholics) are more prone to learning the Word of God, as taught through the leadings of the Holy Spirit. God is a Spirit, and it is not unusual to see most Roman Catholics following the edicts of Rome with the clear instructions of Roman Catholicism. It is required!

With the Holy Spirit, we are told by our Savior and Provider that we are to follow the instructions from the Word of God. Paul wrote about that and also wrote about those new Christians in Rome...

John 14: ...25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ...

Romans 2: 1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ...

2 Timothy 3: ...25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ...

[CynicalBear]

Well done!

[WVKayaker]

...

With the Holy Spirit, we are told by our Savior and Provider that we are to follow the instructions from the Word of God. Paul wrote about that and also wrote about those new Christians in Rome... ...

2 Timothy 3: ...15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. ...

[LurkingSince'98]

“Well, surprise, surprise. Evangelicals are poorly catechi”

You missed the whole point - the poorly catechized were the fallen away Catholics that you celebrate.

Point is you end up with Catholics who are fallen away, poorly catechized, most often divorced and who are looking for Catholicism light.

No mortal sin, contraception, divorce, and believe whatever you want.

We’ll they are all yours at least until they tire of your particular sect looking for something ‘less judgemental’

They are all yours and good riddance.

Ad Majoram Adei Gloriam

[metmom]

*mortal sin* is a fabrication of Catholicism. The term is not found anywhere in Scripture.

From James, the Catholic's favorite book of the Bible.

James 2:10-11 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

So, no there is no mortal sin.

NFP is church sanctioned contraception just as annulment is church sanctioned divorce. So there is no need to leave the RCC to get a divorce. Just pay out enough and you can have it annulled.

Those accusations fall flat.

And no, nobody can believe whatever they want. If it doesn't line up with Scripture, then you don't believe it. That includes man-made traditions, which is why it's so funny that Catholics accuse non-Catholics of believing whatever they want when they believe the fabrications of Catholicism that have ZERO Scriptural support but are taught as truth.

[metmom]

You missed the whole point - the poorly catechized were the fallen away Catholics that you celebrate.

poorly catechized = not thoroughly indoctrinated.

IOW, they can still think for themselves.

That falls flat as well as there are people like Dan who was NOT poorly catechized but got saved anyway and stuck with the church for years before finally leaving.

Another baseless accusation lobbed out hoping it would stick.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

I decided to comment on this thread, because of a good friend of mine, now diseased and with his Lord. We will call him 'Jacob', not his real name. He was in his 80's when I came to know him. What I will relate now is what he told me. He was a Roman Catholic Priest in Florida. The Lord told him to go to New York City; he had work for him to do there. He was obedient. He went. He soon found himself in the company of some 'evangelicals', and they were at a street corner, preaching the Gospel. He was there and he was asked to 'preach'. He did. Something totally not in his upbringing nor in his 'ecclesiastical' training. From there, his story continues. He worked with many in various ways to present the Gospel to all. He was in the company of a well known preacher who told him he would meet a woman who would become his wife, and described her to him. Sometime later he was with friends, and the hostess was busy in the kitchen with preparations for dinner and there was a knock on the door. She asked 'Jacob' to answer the door. When he opened it, there was the woman who had been described to him in detail sometime earlier, his 'soul mate'. Later they were married. At this point, I would interject that I do not know all the ins and outs of his no longer being a 'celibate' priest, or his connection directly to the Roman Catholic Church. He and his wife had a mission in New York, and provided help, including food to many. Later he was involved in distribution of Bibles in Poland. He met the bishop of Kraków. The bishop heard about his being able to arrange food in quantity for the needy and asked 'Jacob' if he could help. 'Jacob' did, and the food flowed into Poland. 'Jacob' and the bishop of Kraków became good friends. Now for the rest of the story. The bishop of Kraków was elected Pope John Paul II (now Saint John Paul the Great). When Karol Józef Wojtyła was inaugurated as Pope John Paul II 'Jacob' and his wife were invited by Karol Józef Wojtyła to be there for the ceremony. They had seats near the front. When the ceremony ended and Pope John Paul II came down to greet those there the first one he embraced was my friend 'Jacob'. And he and his wife were invited to a morning mass in the Pope's private residence the next morning. My friend 'Jacob' was a great man of God. He exemplified what Jesus taught. He is missed, but his wife and I know that he is basking in the presence of his Savior. .

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Apologise for no paragraphs. I tried and it did not work.

[WVKayaker]

You missed the whole point

I missed nothing, and I know everything within the context and concept behind the RC catechism. I was raised as an Episcopalian, and most of the Episcopal catechism is derived from the RC version, minus much of the "Mariology" and devotion to Saints.

That is the drivel, which is manmade and followed with an iron rod against the adherents of the RC cult. I spouted Scripture to back my words. Your authority is clearly lacking that same source!

You ad hominem's also further show your personal animus toward those of us that prefer Scripture as the source of power and guidance, aided by the leadings of God's Holy Spirit.

My theology is Christ centered, not church centered. I don't see much of that from the RC cultists herein! With that group, it is church, church, church, and bowing down to "worship" dead folks!

Good luck with that. I will keep my faith in Christ's work for me...

2 Timothy 1: ...12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

[LurkingSince'98]

As I said you never read a word of it by your own admission.

AMDG

[metmom]

On the contrary, I have the CCC bookmarked on my computer and refer to it regularly.

So are you telling me that I need someone to *correctly* interpret the CCC for me, as I need someone to correctly interpret Scripture for me?

And just who is that going to be and what are their qualifications?

And who’s going to correctly interpret their interpretation and what are their credentials?

And so it goes, turtles all the way down.

[Elsie]

...they are the most poorly catechized people I have ever met...

This, my friend, is a MANAGEMENT problem!

[Elsie]

Amazing how many people go through life with things constantly going over their heads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acI12jO0HSQ

[Elsie]

I’ll best your parish is FULL of folks who are...

...poorly catechized.