Father Cutie’s Dismissal Shines Light on Church’s Hypocrisy

Miami (CBS4) ― Father Alberto Cutie, a well-known South Florida priest is under fire after a Spanish-language tabloid magazine released pictures of Father Alberto Cutié with a woman.

I have to admit, Father Alberto Cutie was so good-looking that even I noticed. And I am as hetero as they come.

And he also possessed an amiable charm that made me like him immediately.

And I could clearly see his compassion for the working poor.

Although I couldn’t understand why the hell would he waste those good looks on priesthood, I was relieved.

Last thing I needed is a guy that handsome and charming to saturate Miami’s singles market.

Turns out, he wasn’t letting anything go to waste.

I met Father Cutie on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2007. I was hired by Services Employees International Union to photograph a rally that kicked off at Cutie’s church on South Beach, St. Francis de Sales.  He was one of several religious leaders that marched with the workers through several blocks down to South Pointe Park.

Unfortunately, those photos were lost in a hard drive crash.

Fortunately, they weren’t as valuable as the photos that showed Cutie frolicking on the beach with a woman.

Oh, the horror

The Catholic Church wasted no time in removing Cutie from his church after the photos ran in TV Notas, a Latin American gossip magazine that reportedly paid six-figures for more than 20 photos, including one with his “hand inside the woman’s bathing suit touching her posterior,”, according to The Miami Herald.

He was also stripped of his popular radio show and his website was shut down.

However, I’m betting sales of his book will skyrocket.

The hypocrisy that the church had reassigned rather than remove hundreds of priests accused of child molestation over the last few decades was hardly lost on anybody.

And the fact that the Church’s policy has long been outdated is not lost on even the most devout Catholics.

After all, while statistics show that less than ten percent of priests have engaged in child molestations, an average of 50 percent of priests have engaged in sexual relations with adults, according to Richard Sipe, who has been studying celibacy within the Catholic Church for decades.

A study of Swiss priests published on May 12, 2003, revealed that 50% of that clergy had mistresses. Father Victor Kotze, a South African sociologist conducted a survey of the priests in his country (1991) and found that 45% had been sexually active during the previous two year period.

Pepe Rodriguez published his book length study of the sexual life of clergy in Spain (La Vida sexual del Clero 1995). He concluded that among practicing priests 95% masturbate; 7% are sexually involved with minors and 26% have “attachments to minors;” 60% have sexual relations, 20% have homosexual relations.

He further refined the figures of 354 priests who were having sexual relations:

53% of these were having sex with adult women, 21% with adult men, 14% were sexually active with minor boys and 12% with minor girls. Although Rodriguez’ book caused a monumental debate no one has challenged the reality of his numbers.

In fact, while the Vatican has been stubbornly refusing to address the issue of celibacy, there have been growing movements with the Church to reform its policy on celibacy, including C.I.T.I. (Celibacy is the Issue) and Corpus, which will hold its annual national conference this June in Texas.

Priests petition to end celibacy

In 2003, 163 priests from the Milwaukee Archdiocese petitioned the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to end mandatory celibacy for priests. Their pleas went opposed by Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

And in March, New York Cardinal Edward Egan surprised many Catholics by acknowledging that the issue is worthy for discussion.

“It’s a perfectly legitimate discussion,” he said. “I think it needs to be looked at.”

But Egan retired a month later, only to be replaced by Dolan, who has long supported the celibacy policy.

The truth is, the Catholic Church has been losing credibility for decades, mainly beginning in the 1960s with the introduction of the birth control pill, which the Church forbade even married couples from using.

The 2002 revelations of widespread child molestations did nothing to restore credibility within the Church.

Today, there is an extreme shortage of priests, which is why the Milwaukee priests were calling for a change in policy.

That is why a priest like Cutie is a godsend. Youthful, good-looking, charismatic, compassionate and modern. A man who appeals to men, women, young and old. A priest who can charm the rich while defending the poor.

Unfortunately, the Church is too backwards to realize it.

Related Links: • We stand with Padre Alberto • The Catholic Church: What a bunch of hypocrites Related Categories: Miami: Local News, Carlos Miller is a featured writer at Miami Beach 411. He also operates Photography is Not a Crime, a blog about photographer rights, New Media and First Amendment issues. See more articles by Carlos Miller. See more articles by Carlos Miller Was This Post Helpful? Please Share It With Others! Tweet

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