Just when we thought we had heard the last of Father Alberto Cutié (a.k.a. “Father Oprah”), he makes his presence known once more in a rather desperate attempt to gain more than the typical 15 minutes of shame…I mean fame. Not surprisingly, he is coming out in defense of his own actions, but, then again, I guess that’s human nature and I shouldn’t be so critical. However, when, in your attempt to justify your actions, you attack someone or something else, that’s where I, and many others, take issue.

Before we get into what “Padre Alberto” is saying now, let’s review; shall we?

Father Alberto Cutié was ordained a Roman Catholic Priest in 1995 for the Archdiocese of Miami. During his years of priestly service in the Catholic Church, Padre Alberto quickly became somewhat of a “rock star” as the host of several nationally and internationally syndicated television and radio programs. (Don’t worry, I’m not praising the accomplishments of the man here; it’s a simple fact.) His international reputation, in my humble opinion, definitely had a role in his demise as a Catholic priest.

You might recall: towards the beginning of summer 2009, pictures of Father Alberto were uncovered by a popular Mexican celebrity gossip magazine that caught him in a rather compromising position with a woman on the public beaches of Miami. Remember, as a Catholic priest, Cutié promised to carry out his ministry while living in a state of celibacy, which means not getting married and remaining chaste.

When Father Alberto was confronted by the Archdiocese, he did not deny the relationship with the woman. Instead, he professed his love for her and his desire to leave the priesthood. Now, if that was the case, that’s how we all should’ve left it! Cutié should’ve have quietly left the priesthood and prevented any further scandal for a local church that has, unfortunately, had its share of scandals over the years. But, that’s not how he left it.

A few days after his meeting with Archdiocesan officials—staying true to his name—Father Oprah made his rounds on the morning television shows. On the CBS Early Show back in May 2009, regarding celibacy, Cutié stated: “I think it’s a debate that’s going on in our society, and now I’ve become kind of a poster boy for it. But I don’t want to be that. I believe that celibacy is good, and that it’s a good commitment to God.”

Wow…maybe an ounce of humility does exist in Father Oprah. Oh, wait…maybe not. Jump to the present day.

Tomorrow, January 4, 2011, Father Alberto releases his new book, Dilemma: A Priest’s Struggle with Faith and Love. (He’s trying to make another buck off of his story. Is there a movie deal in the works too, because that would make him a rather large sum of money and cause an increase in fame?) I am not critical of him releasing a book. After all, it’s his life story and he can publish it if he wants. However, what I am being critical of is what he actually writes in the book about the Church, the priesthood, and celibacy.

{On a side note: I tend to reserve judgment on these kinds of things until the book is actually released and I can read the passages for myself, but this calls for an early response.}

In a recent article in the Miami Herald, it is explained that the book details exactly how Father Oprah feels about his decision to leave the Church: “Cutié vehemently defends his decision to leave the Catholic Church and shares his increasing disenchantment with it over 14 years as a priest.”

My response: Father, if you felt so disenchanted, why didn’t you take that to your spiritual director? As a former seminarian who studied in the Archdiocese of Miami, I know for a fact that spiritual direction is valued in that local church. If he was having such a problem, it was his responsibility to examine that in the spirit of prayer and reflection.

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, though. If Cutié did take this issue to his spiritual director and no solution came from those talks, then he should have taken it to another priest—a brother whom he trusted and respected.

The article goes on to quote Cutié’s new book:

Secretly, Cutié writes in the book, he had come to doubt much of the church’s teachings as early as 2003, after several run-ins with church hierarchy and after a growing disillusion with ‘bishops too concerned with their own images’ during child sex-abuse crises.

Hmm, that’s an interesting comparison from someone who was plastered all over the Spanish language television stations while he was a priest. After all, you don’t get a name like Father Oprah from your parishioners. If Cutié had issues with certain teachings of the Church, should he have continued on in ministry? As a priest, it is his role not to object to the teachings of the Church, but to believe and teach them through the eyes of faith. However, we cannot do this without the help of the Holy Spirit (CCC 179).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

180: “Believing” is a human act, conscious and free, corresponding to the dignity of the human person.

181: “Believing” is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports, and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.” (St. Cyprian)

182: We believe all “that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed.” (Paul VI | Credo of the People of God §20)

As Catholics, we believe that the Holy Spirit began guiding the Church on the Feast of Pentecost. Therefore, everything handed down from the Apostles and bishops since then has been divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. So, it isn’t our place to object to the teachings of the Church because we simply disagree with them; objecting to those beliefs means objecting to the role of the Holy Spirit. (Granted, I am no theologian, just sharing information from the Catechism.)

According to the Herald article, Cutié then goes on to make his most erroneous claim in the book. He cites celibacy and the recent clergy sex abuse scandals as the reasons for the dwindling number of vocations in the church. Okay, stop right there! This is where I have my biggest issue with Fr. Alberto.

In the last several years, the number of young men studying at the Archdiocese’s St. John Vianney College Seminary and at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach has been extraordinary! Last year, SJVCS saw numbers it had not seen in 35 years! That’s after the revelations of clergy sexual abuse and with knowledge of the requirement of clerical celibacy. How do I know this?? I was one of the nearly 80 men studying there.

The young men—and sometimes not so young men—who are studying to be priests are in the seminary because they want to make a difference in the world. They want to give everything they have to the Lord. When a young man enters the seminary, he doesn’t know he is going to be a priest. (I’m a perfect example of that.) Young men go to the seminary because they feel a tug on their hearts that they cannot ignore; they desire to serve the Church.

As I have stated before, celibacy is a way to make the Kingdom of God present here on earth. If you read Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, you will see that those who choose celibacy for the Kingdom share the same vocations to love as those who marry, but manifest this vocation in a different manner. Furthermore, celibacy is not a rejection of sexuality, but a living out of the deepest meaning of sexuality–union with Christ and his Church (Ephesians 5:31-32).

In order for a young man to first discern a call to the priesthood, he must first discern a call to celibacy. If celibacy is something that the Lord is OFFERING as a GIFT and the young man is WILLING to ACCEPT, (notice my words here) then the priesthood may be for him. That is the bottom line. I would ask Father Cutié to refrain from making judgments on something he couldn’t handle or accept.

When he entered the seminary some 22 years ago, Father Alberto knew what the requirements were for priestly ministry. He obviously had no problem with those requirements then, nor did he take issue with them during the first years of his priesthood. The minute he began having doubts about celibacy should have been a sign for him to have a serious chat with his spiritual director.

Another claim that Cutié makes in Dilemma regards the sexual orientation of many Catholic priests and bishops: “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.”

Are you seriously making that claim, Father? This just goes to show how disenchanted Cutié became with the Church. The big question, which I have no answer for, is why?

Ultimately, we are going to have to wait to read the exact claims and explanations made by Father Alberto in his new book. Needless to say, though, you won’t find me running to the bookstore to buy a copy of it tomorrow. It is my belief that Father Alberto saw his name slipping from the limelight and couldn’t handle that. This book is just another desperate attempt for him to get additional attention and cause further scandal for the Church.

Grow up, Padre Alberto! Your 15 minutes of fame are over!

Note from TP:

If anyone thinks I have been a little overly critical or judgmental of Fr. Alberto, I do apologize. While I do respect Father Alberto as a human being and as a Catholic priest, I do not respect the choices he made. The opinions and thoughts I share above are my frustrations with someone’s total disregard for the Church. That’s where I take issue with Father Alberto.

If, by chance, Father Alberto is reading this, I wish to tell him that he is in my prayers.

May God bless all of you and may He continue to send the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen the Church and each one of us.

The spring semester’s Vocations Awareness Weekend was so much more profound than the fall semester’s VAW. This time around, the seminary capped the number of young men who could attend to at about 70. Each of the seven dioceses of the Province of Miami brought priests and young men discerning God’s will for the their lives. The quality of guys that attended the weekend was a lot better than I had previously experienced. The men who came down know that there is something tugging at their hearts; they know that the Lord is calling them to do something special with their lives. In an increasingly materialistic world, the courage these young men exhibited in simply coming on the weekend was incredible. The Lord was working in so many ways!!

After Vocations Awareness Weekend, activities at the seminary really quieted down. In fact, most of the time leading up to Easter Break was spent, for most of the seminarians, working on papers. The paper I was working on was for Contemporary Philosophy; it was a paper on Martin Heidegger and his critique of the Cartesian project [For all of you non-Philosophers out there, Descartes' philosophical argument culminated in the belief: "Cogito ergo sum."--"I think, therefore I am."] However, once I got into the paper, I realized that in order to talk about Descartes, I first had to do a brief overview of the entire history of philosophy. I did not have a clue as to what I was writing, but Fr. Vallee seemed to like it because he gave me an A–something I was totally not expecting.

When Easter Break finally arrived, I was looking forward to helping out at St. Charles. I absolutely love being around the people of my parish. It reminds me where I am from, who is important and what matters most in life. On Good Friday, I was given the opportunity (strongly encouraged) to cantor for the first time at my parish. Even though I had done it countless amounts of time at the seminary, I was extremely nervous because it was my first time doing it at home. But, everything turned out okay. Before I went up to the ambo to sing the Responsorial Psalm, I said a brief prayer:”Lord, I am doing this for you. Please do not make me look like a fool.”

The rest of Easter Break was spent in a prayerful mood as I contemplated the gift that the Lord had given us through the suffering, death and resurrection of His son. I was reminded that, throughout our lives, we do not necessarily understand where the Lord is leading us; however, we simply have to put our trust in Him and follow where He leads. Most of the time, when we truly try to follow the Lord, we are going down a certain path when the Lord steps in and takes your hand. At that point, sometimes, we are led down a very different path. All we can do is surrender ourselves to His will.

When we returned from Easter Break, it was time to begin preparations for final exams. I was so thankful to be given a take-home final [Themes of the Catechism of the Catholic Church], three open note exams [Thomas Aquinas in the 20th Century, Contemporary Philosophy, and Anthropology], and only one exam where I actually had to study [Spanish]. I guess we can say that the Lord was very merciful as always.

After finals, the seminary community gathered together to begin community days. In most colleges, after the students take their final exams, they are free to go home for the summer. However, in the seminary, we are a faith community first and foremost. That connection ties us together and makes our school community unique. Therefore, community days are designed to help us come together and experience the Lord firsthand through the relationships we have with one another as brothers in Christ.

Community days and the academic year came to a close on May 5th with the celebration of graduation. Sixteen seminarians graduated from St. John Vianney College Seminary this year, most of which are moving on to St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop John C. Favalora, which is usually not the case. Archbishop Favalora usually only presides over the graduation ceremony. However, because he is retiring as Archbishop of Miami in the next month, Favalora was asked to preside over the Mass. It was beautiful to share in that experience with him.

Well, there you have it, the final episode of the “Year in Review.” I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have supported me in this journey over the last year. I have had some great experiences this year at the seminary, all of which will remain with me forever. Thanks for the prayers and the support. As always, stay tuned.

Pax.

PHOTO: (1) St. John Vianney College Seminary; (2) The Excerpt Mill; (3) St. John Vianney College Seminary–Dan Darmanin

Sunday, August 17th:
On Sunday, the new seminarians began, somewhat reluctantly, their four day silent retreat to reflect upon their journey to the seminary thus far. It gave all of us an opportunity to recall the days of the New Student Experience and how we have all come together as brothers in the faith. We were not able to use any kind of technology, including computers, cell phones, radios, televisions, etc. However, this was a gift from God, because we were able to recognize God’s presence in our daily lives.

Monday, August 18th – Wednesday, August 20th:
The retreat continued until Wednesday, when we were finally able to get our cell phones back from Reverend Doctor Rios (we just found out that he had been taking classes to become a doctor without anyone knowing – including Archbishop Favalora). When I finally got my phone back, I turned it on and was greeted by 41 messages!! YIKES!!

The retreat was an awesome experience! It gave us all the time we needed to have for prayerful reflection not only on these days here in the seminary, but for most of us, our entire lives. I was able to see that God has been present in my life the entire time. I just never really noticed! After the retreat ended and I discovered that my vocal chords did not disappear, I was able to voice what I felt touched me the most. When I was sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament, a sense of peace and comfort came over me and I knew that God was with me.

Thursday, August 21st:
On Thursday, all of the Returning Men arrived at the college. They are great guys also!! We have all been getting along really well so far. In my book, we are no longer New Men and Returning Men; we are Men of the Church who are traveling the same road of discernment to the priesthood.

Friday, August 22nd: (Happy Birthday, David!!!)
Friday….what a day! It was jam packed with a lot of fun and some not so fun things. We all had to be up at 7:30 for Morning Prayer, which was a little difficult for the guys returning after a long summer break, but I was used to it. Then we had breakfast, got our books for the semester, and the New Men went out on a “Social.”

We carpooled to the Dadeland Mall, which is about 5 minutes to the south of the seminary, and walked to the MetroRail station (above ground rail system). From there, we went to Downtown Miami and attended Mass at Gesu Catholic Church (the oldest Church in the Archdiocese). Then we went shopping for awhile and got back on the train and departed for home. That night, however, the New Men had to vacate the property because the Returning Men had to go on their Day of Recollection (silent retreat).

Well, a group of us decided to go to see a ceremony where some ladies were installed as nuns. On the way home from the ceremony, we were coming down the Palmetto Expressway when we ran over an iron gate that was sitting in the middle of the road. Unfortunately, the SUV I was riding in got a flat tire. At the time, it was about 11:40 p.m. and curfew was at 12:00 a.m. We were only about 5 minutes from the seminary when we ran over this stupid gate and had to sit there waiting for the tire to get changed. But, because so many cars ran this gate over, the Florida Highway Patrol had to come out and take a report, which took some time. By the time we got back to the seminary, it was about 1:15 a.m. way passed curfew!! But the Dean of Men did get a call from us, so he knew we would be late. But, I got very little sleep last night!!

Saturday, August 23rd:
Today, the Archbishop of Miami came and celebrated a Mass of the Holy Spirit with us as we begin the school year on Monday. Following the celebration of the Eucharist, we had a HUGE dinner. Fr. Miguel even came down to see us for this special occasion. After dinner, we had a little bit of free time so a group of us went bowling and had quite a bit of fun!

Hopefully, I was able to catch everyone up on my week. It was a week filled with great triumphs! Even the flat tire was a blessing because we were able to do some apostolic work on the side of the road (make sure everyone was okay, make sure no one needed any help, etc.). All of the seminarians are looking forward to this upcoming year of formation as we are a community of joy!

I leave you with a couple of questions from our retreat to use to reflect upon your own relationship with our Heavenly Father. Where has God been present in your lives? When have you been aware of His presence? When have you neglected to notice His presence? Have you given thanks to God for all the gifts he has placed in your lives?

Bye for now………..