The Rev. Alberto Cutié, a national figure with movie star looks, was removed from his Miami Beach church Tuesday after photographs appeared in a magazine showing him frolicking with a woman in the sand on a Florida beach.A wildly popular Catholic priest, newspaper columnist and radio and television personality, Cutié will no longer run operations or say Sunday Mass at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church.
Word of Cutié's punishment came during a brief news conference in front of a small gathering of reporters at the Archdiocese of Miami headquarters on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami Shores.
''The vow of celibacy is part of the ordination,'' said spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta. ``A man who is a priest is able to totally focus on the church.''
Earlier in the day, Cutié spoke with Archbishop John C. Favalora, who said that the pictures of Cutié and the woman saddened him.
''Father Cutié's actions cannot be condoned despite the good works he has done as a priest,'' Favalora said in a statement. ``I ask for everyone's prayers at this time.''
Cutié also released a brief one-paragraph note, thanking those who support him and asking for the ``forgiveness of those who may be hurt or saddened by my actions.''
Local reaction to Cutié's removal and the 25 pictures that surfaced this week in the Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas, was strong -- and varied. While some church leaders say Cutié violated a vow of chastity, churchgoers and the public at large were more forgiving.
''He's a human. So he can make mistakes,'' said St. Francis parishioner Karla Unda. ``I know he shouldn't do that. I know it's against the policies of the church. But it's OK. He's a human being.''
At WACC Radio Paz, where Cutié hosted a show until he was removed by the Church on Tuesday, listeners visited and prayed at the station chapel. Most callers to an afternoon show focusing on Cutié were supportive and forgiving.
An elderly woman told WWFE La Poderosa host Eddie Calderon that Cutié was very handsome, and that, ``If I were a young woman, I would go to church every day just to look at him.''
And at WOCN Union Radio, a man told host Ricardo Brown that Cutié's misdeed was inevitable. ''He was surrounded by too much temptation,'' the man said.
The words were more harsh from inside the church.
''A commitment is a commitment,'' said the Rev. James Murphy, pastor at Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church in Miami Lakes. ``To me, it's similar to a vow a person takes in marriage to be faithful to one person. A priest takes a commitment to be faithful to the church.''
This week's cover of TVnotas shows Cutié, 40, laying on his back in blue shorts with an unidentified, long-brown-haired woman in a dark bathing suit wrapping her legs around him.
The other 24 pictures, which TVnotas says were taken over a three-day period in March, include one with Cutié's hand inside the woman's bathing suit touching her posterior. Still another shows the couple kissing at an unidentified terrace bar.
The photos came to light about six weeks after paparazzi tried to peddle them locally, but were turned away.
Isabel Bucaram-Montana, spokeswoman for Spanish Broadcasting System's Mega TV, said the station was offered the pictures for more than $100,000, but said no.
''We did not feel two or three days worth of ratings were worth it,'' she said.
The pictures were also offered to WSBS-TV, a Spanish-language station in Key West. Executive vice president Cynthia Hudson said the station was wary because it couldn't verify the photos. Hudson said they were being peddled as pictures taken on a North Florida beach near St. Augustine.
''We didn't know if they had doctored it,'' she said. ``These are career-destroying photos, we all know that.''
Cutié being tailed by paparazzi is testament to his celebrity status. More significantly, the Cutié incident is another unwanted problem for the Roman/ Catholic Church, still reeling from dozens of nationally scrutinized cases of illicit sexual contacts between priests and underage boys.
In a 1999 interview with The Miami Herald, Cutié spoke of the difficulty of maintaining celibacy, saying, ``it's a struggle, but it's a good struggle.''
Two weeks ago, in an interview with The Washington Post, Cutié said his celibacy didn't interfere with advice he gives to married couples.
Asked how he is able to preach on South Beach, land of nightlife and clubs and beautiful people, Cutie told the Post you remember God created it all.
''People come to the Beach for all kinds of things -- nightlife, partying, dancing, sex, vacations, to have fun,'' Cutié said. ``Probably the last thing on people's minds is that they would come for spirituality. But my little church is a spiritual oasis in the middle of the noise of South Beach.''
With few exceptions, Catholic priests are celibate, which means they don't marry, and refrain from sex. The Roman Catholic church has left the policy virtually unchanged for the past 900 years, saying it allows for a dedication to God and the church without distraction.
Still, some believe the rule is outdated.
''I believe that the Catholic priests should be allowed to marry because they are men and they like women,'' said Guillermo Rey, a neighbor of the Beach church at 621 Alton Rd. ``If a Protestant priest can marry, how come a Catholic priest can't? And I think he's a good guy, a very decent guy. He shouldn't be judged.''
Cutié, born in Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, is not a typical priest. He writes a column about relationships for El Nuevo Herald. He works out. He likes disco.
Cutié grew up in Kendall, graduating from Southwest Miami High in 1987. In 1995 he was ordained by the Archdiocese of Miami.
His popularity soared with the success of the daily Telemundo television show Padre Alberto in 1999. By 2002, he was hosting a weekly talk program on the network, reaching millions of viewers in Canada, Spain and most of Latin America.
A year later he officiated Celia Cruz's funeral in Miami. By 2006, his first self-help book, Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad -- Real Life, Real Love -- was published.
Newsweek gave him the moniker Father Oprah, which Cutié said he prefers to Father Springer or Father Cristino. In December, Cutié went on CNN to blast Playboy magazine for a cover in its Mexican edition that featured an Argentine model looking like the Virgin Mary.
He called Playboy ''hypocritical'' for saying it wasn't meant to portray Mary, and called the photo ``blasphemous.''
By Tuesday afternoon, Cutié's website, which featured information on his self-help book and his television and radio programs, was shut down.
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