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May 8, 2009 8:48 am US/Central
Church Removes Celeb Priest Seen In Steamy Pics
Faith and Religion Analyst says 'Sin Happens'
NEW YORK (CBS News) ―
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Father Alberto Cutie is seen in this undated video grab.
CBS
The scandal surrounding a celebrity priest photographed in an intimate pose with a woman on the sands of Miami Beach continues to grow.
Father Alberto Cutié, a handsome, charismatic TV talk show host, radio personality, newspaper columnist and author known to many as "Father Oprah" is seen in images that were to be published Thursday in the Spanish-language magazine TV NOTAS with an unidentified woman, caressing and kissing while in bathing suits. Sources tell CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami the photos were taken in February.
The Archdiocese of Miami has relieved Father Cutié of his duties at his church and taken him off the air.
"It's not what when you're ordained to priesthood, the behavior that would be considered appropriate," Archdiocese spokesperson Mary Ross Agosta told CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.
Many parishioners and fans are defending Cutié, while others feel betrayed by him.
On The Early Show Thursday, CBS News Faith and Religion Analyst Father Thomas Williams, speaking from Rome, told co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez the Archdiocese was acting appropriately.
"I think the first thing you have to do is get him back settled on his feet," he told Rodriguez, whose family happens to have been close friends for years with Cutié. "They're certainly not excommunicating him or stripping him of his ministry. They're simply saying, 'Now's not a very good time to continue with a very public face or be running a parish.' And I thnk that makes good sense. And it doesn't mean he won't have further ministry in the future; it's just kind of to temporarily quell the problem."
What would Williams say to those angry with Cutié?
"Well, you know, I'm sorry. And it always is a sad thing when someone's unfaithful to their responsibilities, especially a big public figure like this. But we have to recognize that sin is part of our human nature. We have to make room for people's -- for people's foibles and for people's errors. Remember the case in the Gospel where someone commits adultery and Jesus says, 'Will the one who never committed a sin throw the first stone.' All of us, you know, all of us are sinful. All of us need forgiveness, and we should be forgiving of others, as well."
The controversy surrounding Cutié has put new focus on the ongoing debate over the Catholic Church's ban on priests marrying and having sex.
And Williams says he's "not really sure" whether the time has come to lift those bans.
"I think," he observed to Rodriguez, "you can't attribute an act of unfaithfulness to the institution itself. It would be kind of like saying that adultery is caused by marriage. It doesn't really make sense. Or malpractice is caused by medicine. In the sense that we all make commitments, sometimes we fail at those commitments. It doesn't mean the commitments in themselves are bad; it just means that we are human and, to paraphrase a bumper sticker, 'Sin happens.' It happens in all of our lives. It's something we know. We try to repent. We try to get back on our feet again, we ask God's forgiveness, and we try to keep going."
Isn't the vow of celibacy a nearly "impossible standard," Rodriguez asked.
"I really think that it's no more difficult to be faithful to one's celibacy than it is to be faithful to one woman or one man," Williams replied. "I don't think married people really have a huge advantage there. And a lot of married people are unfaithful to their husbands or wives in the same way that priests sometimes are (unfaithful to their vows). I don't think it's something unique to the priesthood that people have a hard time being chaste or having a hard time being faithful to whatever vows they might have."
But why is it required?
"Well, really, the idea is, a closer following of Christ, who himself was celibate, and really to be able to dedicate yourself fully to your parish, to your people, to move around without the worries of, you know, a wife and children and simply be able to give yourself to that. An also to set kind of -- people have an easier time sometimes, they tell me this, anyway -- speaking to someone who's given himself to God, than they do to someone who kind of lives in the same milieu they do."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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