Father Alberto Cutié, who left the Catholic Church after a scandal stemming from a photo of him on Miami Beach in an embrace with his girlfriend, said he doesn't believe the notion of priesthood celibacy will be taken up by the church anytime soon.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski echoed
the sentiment on Wednesday too, and said that like marriage, celibacy
takes discipline, prayer and dedication.
"In the life of the church celibacy
an marriage compliment each other and are not in any way competing with
each other," Wenski said.
Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the
secretary of state of the Vatican, said the church is open to discussion
about the idea of priesthood celibacy being revisited.
Pope Francis
just last year said he was in favor of maintaining the tradition “for
the moment.”
There are those who believe if the
Catholic Church allowed priest to marry, more men would enter the
priesthood and fewer would leave. Archbishop Wenski discounted the
thought by saying in three years seminary enrollment jumped from 30 to
50 seminarians.
Meanwhile, Cutié
left the church, married his girlfriend and last year celebrated the
birth of their second child. Cutie' is now an Episcopal priest at a
parish in the Village of Biscayne Park where he says he's much happier.
'I''m much happier now as a priest.,
Because I think I can serve God as a married man and I see all my
colleagues do it. We have celibate priests and married priests in the
Episcopal church."
Cutié believes the if the Vatican
allowed for priests to marry, more Catholic men of clothe would remain
with the church. The messages he's bombarded with lends evidence to
what he calls fact.
"I can tell you everyday since I became an Anglican, the day I joined the Episcopal church, I've received an email, a phone call, or letter from a Roman Catholic brother who's thinking of making this transition that i have made."