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  Archdiocese of Miami Mum on Priest's Fate
Archdiocese of Miami Leaders Remained Mum on the Status of an Embattled Priest, Who Declared His Love in an Interview Friday.

By Jaweed Kaleem and Andres Viglucci
Miami Herald
May 10, 2009

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1040747.html

The Rev. Alberto Cutié's bosses at the Archdiocese of Miami remained steadfastly mum on the celebrity priest's status Saturday, a day after the unrepentant, embattled cleric publicly declared his love for a woman and said he is considering marriage.

Archbishop John C. Favalora made no mention of Cutié or this week's scandal, which has revived an old debate over the Catholic Church's celibacy requirement, during a Saturday ceremony to ordain three new priests at St. Mary Cathedral in Miami. Cutié was not among dozens of priests at the ceremony.

"Father Alberto needs everyone's prayers right now to help him in his spiritual journey," said archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta in an e-mailed response to a request for comment Saturday.

Cutié, a 40-year-old cleric with youthful looks and an international multimedia following, was relieved of duty at his Miami Beach parish church and the archdiocese radio and television arm, which he oversaw, after a Spanish-language gossip magazine this week published pictures of the priest cavorting on a Florida beach with a female friend.

The archdiocese has said it is up to Cutié, in consultation with Favalora, to decide his future in the church.

In an interview Friday with The Miami Herald, however, Cutié all but acknowledged his days with the archdiocese are over, saying he wants to have children "and at the same time serve God" -- something the church does not allow. "My struggle has gone on for close to a year. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when," he said.

Many Cutié followers have said the church needs to revisit its celibacy policy, which some contend has contributed to a critical shortage of Catholic priests.

Of the three seminarians ordained Saturday, two are grandfathers -- Emmanuel Bastien, 66, and Randall Musselman, 58. The third, Luis Roger Largaespada, is 30.

Bastien and Musselman were married church deacons who became eligible for ordination because their wives died.

 
 

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