I'm sitting here as is my normal morning routine, sipping a cup of Honduran coffee with just a touch of half and half and a teaspoon of turbinado sugar, and the story of Father Cutie' splashes across my television screen.  Surely you've heard of him.  He's the very charimatic priest who was caught on a remote beach somewhere in Mexico hugging and kissing a woman, with whom he later admitted, he'd had a sexual relationship.

It seems as though he has decided to become an Episcopalian minister which will allow him to marry his fiancee'.  Good for him.  But, where my utter amazement comes from is this quote from the Archbishop of Miami (essentially, Cutie's boss):  "Father Cutie's actions have caused grave scandal within the Catholic Church, and led to division within the ecumenical community and the community at large.  Today's announcement [that Cutie' is sliding over to the Episcopalians] only deepens that wound."  Are you kidding me?!

This is the same Catholic Church who hides pedophiles, whose leader suggests condoms don't help with the AIDS virus, who has committed numerous atrocities all in the name of the holy trinity.  Yet, here we have a young man who came clean about his indiscretions (granted, he was caught before doing so), and rather than drag the Church through the muck, opted to continue to serve God how he best sees fit.  And the Church calls that a grave scandal?  Oh, and thanks by the way, for implicitly admitting publicly that the Episcopalian faith is a step down for a priest.

 Just when one thinks religion can't get any uglier. . .