SoFLa Local:Former Priest Alberto Cutié Gets Married

Sitting in the passenger seat of a champagne-colored Lexus and hiding his face behind a newspaper, former Roman Catholic priest Alberto Cutié left a Coral Gables courthouse shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday as a married man.

But Cutié, who left the Catholic church to become an Episcopalian in late May, will have to wait more than a week before his new church recognizes the marriage in a religious ceremony. That will take place in an unnamed church under Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida.

Cutié, 40, and his wife, 35-year-old Ruhama Buni Canellis, quietly slipped into the Coral Gables Branch Court at 3100 Ponce de Leon Blvd. through a gated back entrance around noon Tuesday, avoiding a growing group of news crews.

The couple presented identification and proof of premarital counseling to a clerk as they filled out a marriage license application. Then, they joined Miami-Dade County Judge Jacqueline Schwartz in her chambers for a quick ceremony, according to a court employee.

The couple slipped out a back door, where a half-dozen police officers guarded the front and back entrances. Security officers had been warned to be prepared to open and close courthouse doors at a moment's notice.

The recession-friendly wedding set the couple back $91. That's a $61 application fee and $30 for the marriage ceremony. The marriage licenses - one for each - were free.

Cutie and Canellis have kept a low profile since he preached his first sermon as an Episcopalian - but not a priest - May 31 at Church of the Resurrection in Biscayne Park.

He and Canellis left the Catholic church just days prior during a private ceremony at Miami's Trinity Cathedral, where Cutié also announced that he was starting a year-long process to become an Episcopal priest.

Cutié left his position at St. Francis de Sales Catholic church in Miami Beach when photographs showing him nuzzling Canellis on a Florida beach - a violation of his vow of celibacy - were published in a celebrity magazine in early May.