Celebrity Priest Says He Is Torn between Church and Girlfriend, Damien Cave, The New York Times , May 11, 2009

Celebrity Priest Says He Is Torn between Church and Girlfriend

By Damien Cave
The New York Times
May 11, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/us/12priest.html?_r=1

The Rev. Alberto Cutie in an interview on the CBS “Early Show.” He was removed as pastor of a Miami Beach church after being photographed kissing a woman.

MIAMI — The Rev. Alberto Cutie, 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 on Monday with Maggie Rodriguez of the CBS “Early Show,” Father Cutie said he had been in a relationship for the last two years with the woman, identified in news reports as Ruhama Buni Canellis, 35, a divorced mother living in Miami Beach. But he said he 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,” said Father Cutie (pronounced koo-tee-AY). “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.

After a Spanish-language tabloid published photographs of him with his girlfriend on a Florida beach last week, Father Cutie was removed as pastor of a Miami Beach church. His situation has inspired a raucous local debate — 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 margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

But even Father Cutie, 40, seems unwilling to 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 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 anticelibacy priest,” he said. “I think that’s unfortunate.”

Father Cutie 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 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.

“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.”