THE KING IS DEAD

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Long live Father Alberto Cutié, the new king of Episcopal Organization publicity whores:

A document questioning the Roman Catholic Church’s position on mandatory celibacy signed by Father Joseph Ratzinger (today Pope Benedict XVI) along with several other German theologians, including a couple that are now Cardinals, has just been released after 41 years in hiding. Where was it and how did they hide it for so long?

Maybe because it’s not that big of a deal. I guess Ratzinger was a university professor then and that’s what good teachers do all the time. Toss ideas out there, even ideas they don’t personally agree with, in order to spark classroom debate and get at the truth. So it’s odd that you, of all people, are concerned about the Vatican “hiding” something. I mean, it’s not like it was a hot girlfriend or anything.

I pose this question on secrecy from a very personal standpoint. I am now a married priest, though formerly a celibate Roman Catholic man for several years. Since the publishing of my new book,Dilemma: A Priest’s Struggle Between Faith and Love,

Amazon.com link removed. Sell your own damn books, Cutié.

I have experienced first-hand and have been able to confirm that there appears to be an increase in the number of people who are unable to join a healthy debate on issues, such as celibacy, contraception, remarriage and so many other non-biblical rules within the Roman Catholic Church. People and clergy who question the Church’s positions on these issues should not all be dismissed as “attacking” the Church.

Al? When you’ve decided in advance that certain Catholic doctrines are “non-biblical,” you have no interest whatsoever in a “healthy debate.” Why would you? Since you’re already right and, by extension, the Catholics are already wrong, that “healthy debate” of yours would merely consist of you yammering at the Catholics until they got tired, gave up and agreed with you.

And you’re not “questioning” Catholic positions, Al. You and others like you have completely rejected them. The fact that you refuse to move on and that you constantly keep hammering away about how wrong Rome is rises, as far as this non-Catholic is concerned, to the level of an “attack.”

All of this has led me to confirm that religious extremists are not only a small group of people associated to Islam. Instead, views and verbal threats by some intolerant Roman Catholic extremists that I have received rival any monopoly by Muslim radicals. Listening to the rhetoric, severe attacks and intolerant views of certain folks makes it difficult to understand how it is that some of these folks represent one of the largest denominations of “modern-day Christianity”; which at its core is about love, compassion and greater understanding of all.

If you think Al made the comparison he just made, you must be illiterate or something.

My position on religious radicals was actually confirmed on February 7th when the Catholic League (an organization that does not speak for the official Church) made a press release falsely stating to its constituents that I was “comparing Catholic critics to Muslim terrorists”. That is a totally false claim!

Al may be dumber than a bag of hammers but at least he has no discernible self-awareness. The boy’s definitely bishop material.

I was simply stating (as you can read above) that religious extremists exists in various world religions and that intolerance to any dissenting view seems to be growing today.

Except that’s not what you…aw, screw it. What’s the damn point?

It is clear to me that some – though not all – Roman Catholics feel threatened when anyone dares to question or even make known certain well protected secrets of the institutional church. Many priests have actually already done this and continue to be Roman Catholics; Father Daniel Cozzens, Father A.W. Richard Sipe, Father Thomas Doyle, etc. Dilemma omits most names while revealing eyewitness accounts of secretive situations and their contexts. My personal “secret” of faith and love appears in an institutional context, exposing what at times appears to be a cult of secrecy and even deceit.

I’m thinking that had more to do with the fact that you were doing your girlfriend and you got caught. But I’m cynical that way.

Nevertheless, hate mail from some extreme Roman Catholics

Those would be the “extreme Roman Catholics” who still believe that sex outside marriage is wrong and shouldn’t be engaged in, particularly by ministers of the Gospel.

reaches me, partly because I chose to openly express the love that my wife and I share today, while serving as a priest in the Episcopal Church.

You chose? That tabloid that published those photographs of you and your girlfriend was the one that did the choosing here, big guy.

Only religious extremists — who cannot tolerate to hear anything but their side of the story — shy away from healthy debate and justified criticism of the culture of secrecy that continues to exist in today’s Church.

Project much, Al? You sure have used lots of variations of the word “secret” in your piece Al. Any reason for it? Unresolved issues, maybe?

Prediction. The over/under on when Alberto Cutié gets an Episcopal pointy hat is five years. And I’m definitelytaking the under.

Thanks to FW Ken.