A few months back, a popular Catholic priest, Alberto Cutie, was photographed with a woman. A few days ago, unable to regain his footing in the Catholic church, he chose to switch to the Episcopalian church. I think this warrants a list.
1) It remains beyond me as to where the Catholics get this celibacy thing from. The Bible is explicit on the topic – over and against the Catholic stance. The celibacy of clergy is a human institution, made by human hands, as a form of legalism. It is a form of cosmic Bible abuse to yank priestly vows of celibacy from the Bible.
2) That said, Rev Cutie did promise his boss he’d be celibate, and for this reason he should be disqualified from his Catholic leadership position until he repents of it. A couple things on that:
a) If they don’t give him the opportunity to repent of it, then they are sorely missing the point of the Gospel.
b) While breaking a silly celibate vow is probably technically a sin, somehow lost in all this is that Cutie is actually committing an indisputable sin against the law of God. He is a fornicator, as he is not married to this woman. This should disqualify him from service to ANY church, lest he, again, repudiate his sin. Those who unabashedly and unapologetically flout the law of God shouldn’t be in positions of authority – those who humbly submit to the law of God, even if they have broken it previously, are perfect for positions of authority. His past sin should not disqualify him for future service, so long as he recognizes it.
3) The Catholic stance on the validity of Cutie’s mass reeks of Donatism, a heresy they denounced 1600 years ago. It is not Cutie mass, even the Catholics would recognize that it is Cutie instituting Christ’s mass. If only perfect vessels could implement God’s plans, no one would be able to stand behind a pulpit. For their archbishop to suggest that his masses are invalid is yet again, missing the point.
4) The Episcopal Church never ceases to amaze me (excluding the African branch, but that’s another story – a good story that amazes me in the opposite direction). They are very accepting, which is nice. They don’t care about his sin, or the Bible’s version of sin in general, which is a problem. They don’t really seem to care about rectifying it. They don’t really seem to care about anything…except the publicity that a high profile priest gives to their floundering churches! I’m sure his flash in their pan will lead to increased interest, especially temporarily. I just hope that once people get in the door, they learn something about a holy God that offers fallen humans an opportunity to sanctify their souls through the cleansing of their sins, not the ignoring of them.
5) The Catholic archbishop’s comment about this hurting the ecumenical process is nothing more than political posturing. It’s shameful. They’re fighting over weekly monetary inputs – worried that money will follow people to Cutie – which is precisely what the Episcopals are banking on.
Not all publicity is good publicity, thank you very much.
Words 
I don’t know if I’ve ever witnessed anyone besides the old scary/evil “God is in his holy temple!” preacher guy from Poltergeist use the word “fornicator” in unironic context. Nicely done.
Fornication is just the “technical” term for “sex between tow unmarried people”. It is a no-no in the Bible, which is the standard that the priest would be held to – that’s the only reason I bring it up.
Up until this moment, I had no idea that Reverend Cutie is, in fact, a CUTIE. Dare I say even a hottie.
Which is actually interesting, because nobody ever thinks of Catholic priests as being young or hot, and so when one (sight unseen) ends up in a situation like this, the knee-jerk reaction is, oh, he’s a religious wacko with a mental illness. But then when you google-image him, it’s like, Aha… he’s young & has hormones. Which is somehow less forgivable.
Since, you know, older/uglier people don’t need to have sex, and we can feel sorrier for them or something.
Young and hot, though, AND fancy yourself a man of the cloth? Suddenly the standards are much, much higher. Nobody’s gonna sympathize when you crash.