Alberto Cutié: Information from Answers.com

Alberto Cutié
Born	April 29, 1969 (1969-04-29) (age 40) Puerto Rico
Occupation	Priest and television and radio host
Spouse(s)	Ruhama Canellis

Alberto Cutié (born April 29, 1969), better known as Padre Alberto, is a priest (formerly of the Roman Catholic Church) who became a recognizable name due to his television and radio programs. He joined the Episcopal Church in May 2009.^[1]

1 Media appearances
2 Personal life
3 References
4 External links

Media appearances

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to parents of Cuban ancestry, Cutié worked as a deejay during his adolescence. He was ordained as a Catholic priest for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami in 1995.

Cutié was the first Catholic priest to host a secular talk show both on radio and television.^{[citation needed]} He is also a regular columnist whose writings appear in many Spanish language newspapers throughout the United States and Latin America.

Cutié gained worldwide recognition with his television debut in 1999 as the host of Padre Alberto (and later Cambia tu Vida con el Padre Alberto), a daily talk show televised on the Telemundo network. After the show was canceled, he later served as host of the weekly program America en Vivo on Telemundo International.

Beginning in 2002, Cutié hosted a weekly talk program called Hablando Claro con el Padre Alberto, which reaches millions of households throughout the United States, Canada, Spain and Latin America for EWTN Español, which is part of the global network founded by Mother Angelica. In July 2003 he officiated at Celia Cruz's funeral mass in Miami.^[2]

Cutié also published his first self-help book, Real Life, Real Love ( Ama de Verdad, Vive de Verdad ) in January 2006. It sold thousands of copies and was a bestseller in the Spanish language market.

Cutié has often been called Father Oprah by various publications such as Newsweek. He served as President and General Director of Radio Paz and Radio Peace Catholic 24-hour radio station beginning in January 2001. Padre Alberto hosted several radio programs, such as Al Dia and Linea Directa, and directed the daily operations of Pax Catholic Communications for the Archdiocese of Miami, until the spring of 2009.

On April 2, 2009, Cutié was named one of AARP's new Hispanic Ambassadors.^[3]

Personal life

On May 5, 2009, Cutié asked church officials for a time of reflection and a leave of absence from his media programs and pastoral work as a result of the publication of pictures by a Mexican gossip magazine TVnotas' in which Cutié is kissing Ruhama Buni Canellis^[4]. Cutié asked the Archdiocese of Miami for some time to think and make a decision on where his life was heading.^[5]^[6]

On May 11, 2009, Cutié was interviewed by Maggie Rodriguez of CBS' "The Early Show". ^[7] He said that he was thinking about leaving the Roman Catholic Church for a woman he loves. He said that he respected the church's position that priests be celibate and recognized that some are very dedicated to that calling. He also stated he did not want to become the "anti-celibacy priest".^[8]

On May 13, 2009, Cutié was interviewed by Teresa Rodríguez on the Univision show Aqui y Ahora. Cutie said^{[citation needed]}: (here translated from Spanish)

"I tried to be faithful to Christ with all my heart, but I failed."

"If love is a real feeling, why must it be held back?"

"The Church is committed to its truth. That is fine! But that [just] did not work out for me. I am not saying that it shouldn't work out for my priestly brothers nor the rest of God's people. If they want to be Catholics, may God bless them, but that [just] did not work out for me."

"I do regret if my actions hurt people with all my heart."

When shown the magazine photos and asked to comment on them, Cutié said: "That is called love. What can I say"^{[citation needed]} When asked if he plans to marry the woman, he said: "Getting married would be the normal [thing to do], [is it] not? I have wrestled with that idea for a long time. Since I was young, I always dreamed of being married, [of] having 10 children."^{[citation needed]}

When asked if he had had a sexual relationship with the woman, Cutié did not answer directly, instead saying: "In life we all need intimacy, sometimes that [intimacy] is translated as sex. [...] But, when you see people that love each other intimately and they are friends and they have a special connection, sex does not always have to be [part of it]."

He also said that "There are other ways to serve God. I am not the same man I was when I entered the seminary 22 years ago"^[9] By the end of month Cutié announced that he had been in the process of discerning entering The Episcopal Church for the last couple of years, which in turn helped him consolidate marriage and his calling to serve God.^[10]

On June 26, 2009 Cutié married his girlfriend, Canellis, in a religious ceremony at the Ancient Spanish Monastery (www.spanishmonastery.com) in Miami, named after St. Bernard of Clairvaux.^[11] The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, the Cuban-born bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, officiated the religious ceremony, accompanied by Bishop Onell Soto (retired Bishop of Venezuela) and several other Anglican/Episcopalian priests.^[12]