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	Father Alberto Cutie Joins Episcopal Church, Will Marry By Jaweed Kaleem Miami Herald May 28, 2009 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/1070094.html The Rev. Alberto Cutie, the celebrity priest removed from his Miami Beach church after photos of him kissing and embracing a woman appeared in the pages of a Spanish-language magazine earlier this month, has left the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami to join the Episcopal church and announced that he will marry the woman he has dated for two years. Joining him in becoming an Episcopalian was the woman in the photos, Ruhama Buni Canellis, 35. The small, private ceremony happened at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Trinity Cathedral, the church's South Florida headquarters in downtown Miami. Cutie, dressed in a white dress shirt, a black jacket and black dress pants, sat smiling beside his fiance during the half-hour ceremony. Priests and deacons from the Episcopal church were by his side -- many notably accompanied by their wives. Bishop Leo Frade, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, officiated as Cutie and Canellis knelt in front of the bishop and were received into the Episcopal church. The bishop also gave Cutie special status as a lay minister, meaning he can preach in Episcopal churches but not celebrate the Eucharist, the symbolic body and blood of Christ. Cutie will give his first sermon as an Episcopalian 10 a.m. Sunday at the Church of The Resurrection in Biscayne Park. It will take Cutie at least a year to be certified as an Episcopal priest. "I am continuing the call to spread God's love," Cutie said at a later news conference, adding that he has gone through a "deep spiritual and ideological struggle." At a press conference late Thursday afternoon, Archdiocese of Miami officials expressed disappointment in Cutie and had strong words for the Episcopal Church, especially Bishop Frade. "This is truly a setback for ecunemical relations and cooperation between us. The Archdiocese have never made a public display when for doctrinal reasons Episcopal priests have joined the Catholic Church and sought ordination," said Archbishop John Favalora. He said he had not heard from Frade about the transition and had not spoken to Cutie since May 5, adding that Cutie never told the archbishop he wanted to get married. "Father Cutie is removing himself from full communion with the Catholic Church and thereby forfeiting his rights as a cleric," Favalora said, later adding that Cutie is still "bound by the promise to live the celibate life which he freely embraced at ordination. Only the Holy Father can release him from the obligation" Not so, Bishop Frade said Thursday afternoon. "That promise is not recognized by our church. If you can find it in the Bible that priests should be celibate, that will be corrected," Frade said. "The only thing we can say is that we pray for ecumenical relations. . .I am sorry they are sorry, and we love them." Cutie took a leave from his posts in the Archdiocese of Miami earlier this month when compromising pictures of the 40-year-old cleric were published in the Spanish-language magazine TVnotas. The magazine's pages showed Cutie in blue shorts lying on his back embracing Canellis and kissing her, a violation of his vow of chastity. Such a relationship is not prohibited in the more liberal Episcopal church, which considers itself the "middle way" between Protestantism and Catholicism. It ordains women and has an openly gay bishop. The church represents the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion and traces its roots to the Church of England, which broke from Rome in the 16th century. On Thursday, Cutie and Canellis knelt in front of their new bishop and a handful of priests as Frade recited the traditional words to receive new members of the church. "We recognize you as a member of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church;and we receive you into the fellowship of this communion. God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, bless, preserve and keep you. Amen," Frade said. In previous interviews, Frade had said he and Cutie had spoken following the media frenzy surrounding the priest, which included an appearance on CBS' The Early Show and Spanish-language network Univisión, in addition to national and international newspapers. In the interviews, Cutie has said he loves the woman and hinted at marriage and kids in the future. Frade, who has been friends with Cutie for seven years and first met him through a Cuban ecumenical group, has said the popular priest had also spoken privately with leaders of other Christian denominations, such as Baptists and Lutherans. It is unclear if those conversations focused on joining those churches. In South Florida, at least five former Catholic priests serve in the Episcopal church. Nationally, there are more than 100 Episcopal priests who were once Catholic. "This doesn't say anything less of our sister church," Frade said Thursday. "We have many Episcopal priests that have left the Episcopal church because they disagree with the ordination of women, and we have many Catholics that have joined our church. The road between Rome and Canterbury gets lots of traffic." Bishop C. Christopher Epting, the Episcopal church's national deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, said that it is not uncommon for Catholic priests to become Episcopal priests. "It's possible to receive a Catholic priest straight into the Episcopal priesthood," he said, adding Cutie could bypass the seminary but that he that would need to pass an examination in church history and doctrine and have two Catholic priests recommend his "moral and Godly character." While the Episcopal and Catholic churches have almost identical worship services, there are also significant differences. For example, Episcopalians do not believe in the infallibility of the Pope.
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