The Rev. Alberto Cutié, the Roman Catholic priest and international television and radio celebrity who was caught in tabloid photographs kissing a woman, said Monday that he was torn between two loves — the church and his girlfriend. In an interview Monday with Maggie Rodriguez of the CBS “Early Show,” Father Cutié said he had been in a relationship for the last two years with the woman — identified in news media reports as Ruhama Buni Canellis, 35, a divorced mother living in Miami Beach — but had not decided whether to leave her or the priesthood.
“I think that when you love someone, you just don’t kind of say goodbye,” he said, adding: “I think you have to assume your responsibilities in many ways.”
The fall from grace for “Padre Oprah,” as he was known to fans of his television program and best-selling book, “Real Life, Real Love,” has been dramatic.
Since a Spanish-language tabloid published photographs of him frolicking with his girlfriend on a Florida beach last week, Father Cutié’s situation has inspired a raucous local debate — complete with a shoving match between his supporters and critics outside his former parish, and job offers from denominations that let ministers marry.
Catholics in this heavily Hispanic area, where megachurches and strip clubs vie for attention, have made their views on celibacy clear: a poll conducted in the last week by Bendixen and Associates, found that 74 percent of Catholics in Miami-Dade County oppose the Catholic Church’s policy prohibiting priests from having sexual relations; the poll had a 5 percent margin of error.
But even Father Cutié, 40, seems unwilling to completely abandon a policy that began in the Middle Ages.
He said in the interview that he supported letting priests choose whether to stay celibate or marry, but he also praised celibacy as “a good commitment to God.” He said he did not want to be a poster-child for only one side.
“I don’t want to be the anti-celibacy priest,” he said. “I think that’s unfortunate.”
Father Cutié did not wear his priest’s collar in the interview. His eyes, with deep bags beneath, suggested exhaustion, but he spoke eagerly, often gesturing with his hands, and displayed the smile, directness and charisma that have made him so popular in Miami and throughout Latin America.
He apologized repeatedly, saying that this was his first and only relationship as a priest, and that he knew his actions were wrong and “stupid.”
“I was motivated by love for someone, by a good thing, a healthy and a good desire in my heart,” he said. “And at the same time, I just need to make decisions. And I shouldn’t be making them in public, but that’s exactly what happened.” +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer
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Source (NYT)
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