By Brian Hamacher
NBC Miami
January 3, 2011
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Father-Oprah-Decries-Misogynistic-Catholic-Church-112799924.html
 |
Faith-flipping former Catholic priest Alberto Cutie says his former church is "misogynistic" and "disconnected" in his new tell-all that's set to hit shelves Tuesday.
In Dilemma: a Priest's Struggle with Faith and Love, the priest who was once known as Father Oprah takes dead aim at the Catholic church, calling it an "institution that continues to promote old ideas," according to the Miami Herald.
The 41-year-old left the church after his affair with a woman, Ruhama Canellis, was exposed in 2009. Cutie was the head of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach when a photographer caught Cutie and Ruhama canoodling on the beach.
A Spanish-language tabloid published the pics and the religious melodrama took off.
After flipping to the Episcopalian faith and joining the Church of the Resurrection in Biscayne Park, Cutie married Ruhama in June 2009. The couple welcomed their first child, Camila Victoria Cutie, in late November.
Cutie, who spent 14 years with the Catholic Church, said he began to lose touch with his faith in 2003 amid numerous sex abuse scandals and what he considers an out-of-date celibacy policy. He writes that church leaders do nothing about homosexual and heterosexual relationships among priests as long as they're kept secret, unlike his.
"There are so many homosexuals, both active and celibate, at all levels of clergy and Church hierarchy that the church would never be able to function if they were really to exclude all of them from ministry," Cutie writes.
He also says church leaders leave priests "abandoned to sink or swim" when they're accused of sex abuse.
Cutie has few kind words for former Archbishop of Miami John Favalora, calling him "disconnected" like "an aloof CEO" with a "cold and rigid approach."
Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who took over for Favalora last year, said in December that Cutie wasn't forced to leave the Catholic church and that the scandal affected a lot of people.
"Lots of people were hurt, lots of people were disappointed -- probably including his own mother," Wenski told the Herald.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.