Father Alberto Cutié has been enjoying a little slap and tickle more than his call to celibacy it seems:
Father Alberto Cutié, the Roman Catholic priest who has been a cause of some international scandal since captured on film cuddling his girlfriend, now his fiancé, on a beach, has been accepted into The Episcopal Church in the US. It is likely he will go on to become an Episcopal priest. As The Lead reports, Father Cutié and his fiance were received into the worldwide Anglican Communion by the Bishop of Southeast Florida, the Right Rev Leo Frade, a fellow Cuban.
It is worth noting that when an Anglican priest moves to Rome it is on principle: one may not necessarily agree with the principle, but at least it is not merely self-serving and usually such a priest represents the best Anglicanism has to offer. When TEC welcomes a Roman Catholic priest into its midst it is because he has disgraced himself in his own church.
Damian Thompson reckons this will damage relations between Roman Catholics and Anglicans.
It’s difficult to damage something that has already been systematically pulverised into small pieces by the likes of the ACoC and TEC, though.
If I were an Episcopalian, I’d be insulted. I wouldn’t want my church to be a dumping ground for Catholic rejects.
And what about papal infallibility? Marian devotion? Devotion to saints? Sacred Tradition? Did he and does he believe in these? Was he just going along? And if he was just giving lip service to these Catholic doctrines, how reliable would he be to uphold Episcopalian doctrines?