Break a Vow, Change Denomination

As I road the elevator to my office floor, my eye could not help but wander, as always it does, to the Captivate media screen that inflicts headlines and other tidbits about the culture. There are no exceptions to the electronic intrusions, but that is another spoke on the blogging wheel not to be taken up today. What I saw in the brief moments before the doors opened made provided a dark chuckle.

Father Cutie, the handsome, entertainment savvy Catholic priest who got caught canoodling with a woman by the Enquirer and such other pillars of journalistic writing, announced today that he was becoming an Episcopalian so that he could be "with the woman he loved." One might think, initially, that this was a principled decision. In interviews, he has said he struggled with celibacy (folks, celibacy means not marrying; chastity means no sex) and that he had no intent to cause scandal to the Church, and his spiritual community. If I had read that he had made a choice to ask to be released from his vows, but remaining a Catholic, I wouldn't likely have been jarred. But given this particular solution, one wonders whether he would have continued being a Catholic priest pretending to maintain the vow of chastity, while actually not maintaining it, except for being caught by a telephoto lense. My cynical thoughts tend in that direction. Having BEEN caught, he wants, pardon the expression, to "have his cake and eat it too". He wants to stay a priest, and keep the woman. Vows schmows.

Now, I know a vow is hard to keep. And I have many a sin on my own conscience. But something about the ease with which Fr. Cutie has adjusted his theological loyalty rankles me. This purported model for the rank and file Catholic not merely disappoints, but is rather, at least from my admitted outside looking in (I cannot know the man's heart), cavalier about what one would have thought was his faith, notwithstanding the protestation of struggle. While the Catholic and Episcopal faiths are very close, they have meaningful differences, related to the idea of the fullness of truth, and where say a Cardinal Newman made the switch to Catholicism from the Anglican Church because of an article of dogma, the True Presence, young Fr. Cutie seems to have made the switch for convenience sake. Again, I don't know what is in the man's heart. But I am unaware that even the Episcopals allow their priests unmarried sex, so I assume he plans on taking another vow of "unto death do us part" with the woman and continuing with his entertainment presentations for the High Church. Good luck to them.

But I do finally wonder whether if some requirement of Fr. Cutie's new found faith conflicts with another need of his, what he will become then? It's a good thing that there's an assortment of other faiths and philosophies at his disposal.