(UNDATED) In the nearly 500 years since the Church of England split with the Roman Catholic Church, a fair number of converts have crossed from one church to the other.
Still, the path is fraught with stumbling blocks, as the Rev. Alberto Cutie — the most recent, and high-profile convert — discovered on Thursday (May 29) when he left Catholicism to join the Episcopal Church.
Known as “Father Oprah” for his popularity and media savvy, a photographer caught Cutie embracing his girlfriend on a Florida beach earlier this month. The 40-year-old celebrity cleric later admitted to struggling with the Catholic priesthood’s mandatory celibacy and was suspended from ministry.
Just weeks later, Cutie announced that he hopes “to continue priestly ministry and service in my new spiritual home” the Episcopal Church, which allows priests to marry. He had been considering conversion for two years, according to the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida.
With a star of Cutie’s magnitude — millions tuned in to his television and radio shows for relationship advice — media attention of his conversion was, perhaps, inevitable. Reporters from English and Spanish-language media crowded into Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Miami to witness the half-hour ceremony and subsequent press conference.
Miami’s Catholic Archbishop, John Favalora, Cutie’s former boss, was not pleased.
He blasted the new convert and his Episcopal counterpart, Bishop Leo Frade of Southeast Florida, for breaking the unwritten rules of conversion: Advise the other bishop about your plans and don’t show up the other faith by making a public display.
“Bishop Frade has never spoken to me about his position on this delicate matter or what actions he was contemplating,” Favalora said in a statement. “This is a truly serious setback for ecumenical relations and cooperation between us.”
Moreover, Favalora said his archdiocese “has never made a public display when, for doctrinal reasons, Episcopal priests have joined the Catholic Church and sought ordination … I regret that Bishop Frade has not afforded me or the Catholic community the same courtesy and respect.”
Even Episcopalians say Favalora has a point. Bishop Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church’s point man for interfaith affairs, said Friday, “There’s no written rule, but it’s certainly been the informal understanding between all our ecumenical partners that it’s not something one seeks headlines about. It doesn’t help us ecumenically.”
There’s a delicate diplomacy to conversions, with long-established protocols to ensure that interfaith bridges that take decades to build are not burned in a single afternoon. Epting said the Episcopal Church’s ecumenical office, which is usually consulted on all conversions, was not informed about the ceremony ahead of time.
“I wish we had been consulted,” Epting said. “We will be pursuing this.”
Frade could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday. On Thursday, he said, “The only thing we can say is that we pray for ecumenical relations … I am sorry they are sorry, and we love them,” according to the Miami Herald.
Cutie is hardly the first Catholic to leave the fold for love. In fact, the Church of England, which later spawned the Episcopal Church in the U.S., was essentially created by a spousal issue. King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, Pope Clement VII wouldn’t let him, so the Henry started the Church of England and appointed himself its head.
But there’s been plenty of traffic toward Rome too, said Monsignor William Stetson of the Office of Pastoral Provision, which was created by the late Pope John Paul II in 1980 to prepare former Episcopal priests for ministry in the Catholic Church. Four or five former Episcopal priests — including, recently, several bishops — convert to the Catholic Church each year, he said.
However, his office “has always advised not giving publicity to these events,” Stetson said. For example, when the former Episcopal Bishop of Southwest Florida, John Lipscomb, announced his conversion to Catholicism two years ago, “there was no display,” Stetson said. “This case in Florida (with Cutie) where you have it within a couple of weeks, and in a public ceremony … that’s not cool.”
But none of those converts were celebrities. In a sense, Frade’s hands were tied by his new convert’s fame, said Jim Naughton, director of communications for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
“When (someone) joins the Episcopal Church, it would be silly to chase them away,” he said. “And in such unusual circumstances it’s very difficult to be critical of Bishop Frade because he has both a very vibrant and gifted priest, but also an atmosphere of controversy. Unless you’re from that community, I think it’s very hard to pass any judgment.”
By DANIEL BURKE
c. 2009 Religion News Service
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted May 29, 2009 at 9:28 pm
The church of free love! Sacred vows mean nothing! What a pathetic joke the once Christian denomination has become.
You have heard of non-denominational Christian churches? How about the non-Christian denominational church?
posted May 29, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Shouldn’t they be more concerned with the man’s “immortal soul” than who gets to count him? Isn’t this all kind of petty?
Or is it, just possibly, about the money?
posted May 30, 2009 at 1:00 am
All join hands and circle left – uh, right – uh, do-si-do your partner – uh, wait you’re not supposed to have one – uh, bow to your corner, now swing your corner – hey, wait a minute nobody said nothing about you allamande-ing around the circle! Father Cutie, You let go of her right now!
Boy, life and square dancing (and religion) was a lot simpler in 5th grade.
posted May 30, 2009 at 10:56 am
“Or is it, just possibly, about the money?”
The money? I don’t think that, financially speaking, the RCC loses anything when a priest who has been living under a vow of poverty leaves the Church.
So, the money??
That’s a weird comment to make.
posted May 30, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Bob: “So, the money??”
“With a star of Cutie’s magnitude — millions tuned in to his television and radio shows for relationship advice”
When lots of people are “turning to” him there’s money there. Maybe he draws some people into the RCC; that’s money. I don’t know what happens to the money he’d normally get for his shows and books; does none of it get to the Church?
posted May 30, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Without any kind of documented evidence to back it up, nnmns, your speculations are about as valuable as the average conspiracy theory–that is, not valuable at all.
The constant suggestion of some that these churches don’t actually believe what they say they believe, but that they’re all just in it for the money, gets tiresome really quickly.
posted May 30, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Under this Cassock
Father Cutie:
According to the Wikipedia article.
posted May 30, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Nate: “The constant suggestion of some that these churches don’t actually believe what they say they believe, but that they’re all just in it for the money, gets tiresome really quickly.”
Nate, you misunderstand. Some of them are in it for the sex. And of course some are in it to further something really old that they’ve been taught is valuable though to many of us that’s far from obvious.
posted May 30, 2009 at 4:16 pm
And some of them are in it because to preach a message and live a life that is forever fresh and new and exciting that they have discovered to be valuable through their own free investigation.
Seriously, slandering the motives of those who don’t agree with doesn’t do a thing to lead to mutual understanding or the resolution of differences.
posted May 30, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Father Cutie can still give good advice to couples, he is still the same man with the same intellect, the only thing that has changed is his leaving a Church he loved but won’t allow him to be a man in the true meaning of being one. God is leading him, I have no doubt of this.
posted May 30, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I don’t claim everyone involved in religions is bad in one way or another. But clearly many of them are, and to get on a high horse because I suggested greed is involved in this tiff is to ignore human nature.
posted May 30, 2009 at 11:10 pm
nnmns you are right, completely, I hate to say it but you are right in this case but I think your consistant and irretating digs do make it hard for people to take you seriously outside of the serious hate side of your comments. If there was a fair balance then maybe people like Nate could exchange thoughts with you on a higher level.
People like Cutie makes it impossible for the seeker to see God. Worship leaders generally entertain because they cannot lead followers to worship, because worship of God has been overshadowed by the worship of themselves.
posted May 31, 2009 at 7:27 am
Cutie is giving his first (guest) Episcopal sermon today.
. I don’t hate the worshipers, just what a lot of them worship because of the effects it so often has on others.
http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/1225593.html
And thanks cknuck, sort of
Nate and I will get along better as time goes by.
posted May 31, 2009 at 11:10 am
nnmns I have seen a lot of people compromise the gospel for the sake of cyber-community but I seriously don’t think that Nate is cut from that cloth, although he seems to be willing to be curtious and pursuit civility he I doubt if he will compromise his relationship with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
posted May 31, 2009 at 11:11 am
Well it is too bad this could not have been handled quietly as the bishop wanted, but Cutie is already a celebrity and it would have been almost impossible for this not to have been in the news.
Priests leave the Episcopal Church to enter the Catholic Church all the time, and some Catholic priests go the opposite direction. This is usually a quiet transition, by mutual agreement.
Now if Cutie orchastrated the start of all this by the public “cadoodaling” that is another matter.
posted May 31, 2009 at 1:38 pm
cknuck I said we’d get along better, not that we’d come to agree. You and I often get along fairly well though we disagree a lot more than we agree.
posted May 31, 2009 at 9:54 pm
It’s nice to see that Cutie’s doing well after his coming out. It’s not easy being surrounded by people who look down on you for your orientation, be it straight or otherwise.