Lutcher native Rev. Roy Bourgeois is closer to expulsion for his support of women's ordination
Published: Tuesday, August 09, 2011, 3:20 PM Updated: Tuesday, August 09, 2011, 3:27 PM
Rev. Roy Bourgeois, the Lutcher native and peace activist, apparently drew closer to expulsion from the priesthood and his Maryknoll religious community for publicly supporting the ordination of women to the priesthood.
View full sizeThe Rev. Roy BourgeoisBut Bourgeois said he cannot publicly recant, as his order requires. "What they're asking me to do is lie," he said in an interview from his home in Columbus, Ga. "To say I don't believe God calls women to the priesthood as well as men -- I cannot do that."
It was Bourgeois' public participation in a ceremony in Kentucky in 2008 that put him on the church's radar. Catholic officials said the ceremony purporting to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska a Catholic priest was without effect, but that Bourgeois nonetheless incurred automatic excommunication by participating. That means he is cut off from the sacraments, although he remains a priest.
At the same time, a process began to unfold that could end with Bourgeois' forced "laicization," or being stripped of the priesthood. That would also mean expulsion from the Maryknoll community that has supported him through the years.
Bourgeois' Maryknoll superior, the Rev. Ed Dougherty, on July 27 issued the last written warning required by church law before sending Bourgeois' case to Rome.
Dougherty advised Bourgeois he would forward the case to Rome for laicization "if you fail to publicly recant and retract your stand on this issue of women's ordination" by Aug. 11.
The Catholic church teaches that men and women are of equal dignity and entitled to equitable treatment at home, work and in other arenas. But it holds that Christ defined the priesthood as an all-male corps modeled on himself, and it is powerless to change that. The Maryknoll order said it is bound to uphold that teaching as well. But Bourgeois replied that "after much reflection, study, and prayer, I believe that our Church's teaching that excludes women from the priesthood defies both faith and reason and cannot stand up to scrutiny.
"This teaching has nothing to do with God, but with men, and is rooted in sexism. Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination against women, in the end, it is not the way of God, but of men who want to hold on to their power."
Bourgeois noted that the Maryknolls require more than he simply refrain from further public statements on women's ordination - but that he publicly recant his belief.
"If i did that I would be tormented for the rest of my life," he said.
Bourgeois said he has retained the Rev. Tom Doyle, famous for his support of sexual abuse victims and his criticisms of bishops, as his canon lawyer.
His defense is the primacy of his conscience and his right to dissent, Bourgeois said.
"As Catholics we're always taught the primacy of conscience. It's sacred, our lifeline to God. It enables us to discern right from wrong and urges us to do the right. Over time this has become, for me, a matter of conscience."
But a friend and secular lawyer said Tuesday he hoped Bourgeois might retain his priesthood.
Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University, said Bourgeois has promised his Maryknoll community he will not to participate again in rites purporting to ordain Catholic women to the priesthood -- although not to recant or silence himself on the issue.
"An issue as important as this, we've got to be able at least to have dialogue without getting kicked out," Quigley said.
Quigley said Bourgeois has attracted substantial support among fellow priests in an out of the order, if not for women's ordination, support for his right to offer his public opinion without loss of his priesthood.
"There's still hope" the Maryknolls may agree to permit Bourgeois room to speak publicly, short of participating in future ordination ceremonies, Quigley said
Mike Virgintino, a Maryknoll spokesman, said Dougherty is traveling and has not yet received Bourgeois' reply.
He said Dougherty months ago slow-tracked the process to give Bourgeois maximum time to reconsider his position.
As a member of the Maryknoll community Bourgeois has lived for years under a vow of poverty, living in a small apartment outside the gates of Fort Benning, Ga., on a Maryknoll allowance.
For more than 20 years Bourgeois has led national protests against a military installation there once called the School for the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere institute for Security Cooperation.
He and other critics said the military school for years trained Latin American officers in the techniques Central and South American dictators used to suppress the poor. He has sometimes been jailed for his protests.
Bourgeois, a priest for 39 years, is a native of Lutcher, with a 98-year-old father and siblings still in the area.
Virgintino said if Bourgeois is expelled the order will nonetheless continue to provide for him financially.
>>>My add on: This story, like so many others reporting on women being ordained to the Priesthood always get it wrong: these are invalid, heretical acts. No woman has been, is or will be ordained a Roman Catholic Priest. It just ain't possible. No one, including Fr. Bourgeois, has the ability to claim God calls women to the Priesthood. I will pray for him and all these women who are following their will and not that of God. And I will hate the sin; not the sinner!
View full sizeThe Rev. Roy BourgeoisIt was Bourgeois' public participation in a ceremony in Kentucky in 2008 that put him on the church's radar. Catholic officials said the ceremony purporting to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska a Catholic priest was without effect, but that Bourgeois nonetheless incurred automatic excommunication by participating. That means he is cut off from the sacraments, although he remains a priest.
At the same time, a process began to unfold that could end with Bourgeois' forced "laicization," or being stripped of the priesthood. That would also mean expulsion from the Maryknoll community that has supported him through the years.
Bourgeois' Maryknoll superior, the Rev. Ed Dougherty, on July 27 issued the last written warning required by church law before sending Bourgeois' case to Rome.
Dougherty advised Bourgeois he would forward the case to Rome for laicization "if you fail to publicly recant and retract your stand on this issue of women's ordination" by Aug. 11.
The Catholic church teaches that men and women are of equal dignity and entitled to equitable treatment at home, work and in other arenas. But it holds that Christ defined the priesthood as an all-male corps modeled on himself, and it is powerless to change that. The Maryknoll order said it is bound to uphold that teaching as well. But Bourgeois replied that "after much reflection, study, and prayer, I believe that our Church's teaching that excludes women from the priesthood defies both faith and reason and cannot stand up to scrutiny.
"This teaching has nothing to do with God, but with men, and is rooted in sexism. Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination against women, in the end, it is not the way of God, but of men who want to hold on to their power."
Bourgeois noted that the Maryknolls require more than he simply refrain from further public statements on women's ordination - but that he publicly recant his belief.
"If i did that I would be tormented for the rest of my life," he said.
Bourgeois said he has retained the Rev. Tom Doyle, famous for his support of sexual abuse victims and his criticisms of bishops, as his canon lawyer.
His defense is the primacy of his conscience and his right to dissent, Bourgeois said.
"As Catholics we're always taught the primacy of conscience. It's sacred, our lifeline to God. It enables us to discern right from wrong and urges us to do the right. Over time this has become, for me, a matter of conscience."
But a friend and secular lawyer said Tuesday he hoped Bourgeois might retain his priesthood.
Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University, said Bourgeois has promised his Maryknoll community he will not to participate again in rites purporting to ordain Catholic women to the priesthood -- although not to recant or silence himself on the issue.
"An issue as important as this, we've got to be able at least to have dialogue without getting kicked out," Quigley said.
Quigley said Bourgeois has attracted substantial support among fellow priests in an out of the order, if not for women's ordination, support for his right to offer his public opinion without loss of his priesthood.
"There's still hope" the Maryknolls may agree to permit Bourgeois room to speak publicly, short of participating in future ordination ceremonies, Quigley said
Mike Virgintino, a Maryknoll spokesman, said Dougherty is traveling and has not yet received Bourgeois' reply.
He said Dougherty months ago slow-tracked the process to give Bourgeois maximum time to reconsider his position.
As a member of the Maryknoll community Bourgeois has lived for years under a vow of poverty, living in a small apartment outside the gates of Fort Benning, Ga., on a Maryknoll allowance.
For more than 20 years Bourgeois has led national protests against a military installation there once called the School for the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere institute for Security Cooperation.
He and other critics said the military school for years trained Latin American officers in the techniques Central and South American dictators used to suppress the poor. He has sometimes been jailed for his protests.
Bourgeois, a priest for 39 years, is a native of Lutcher, with a 98-year-old father and siblings still in the area.
Virgintino said if Bourgeois is expelled the order will nonetheless continue to provide for him financially.
>>>My add on: This story, like so many others reporting on women being ordained to the Priesthood always get it wrong: these are invalid, heretical acts. No woman has been, is or will be ordained a Roman Catholic Priest. It just ain't possible. No one, including Fr. Bourgeois, has the ability to claim God calls women to the Priesthood. I will pray for him and all these women who are following their will and not that of God. And I will hate the sin; not the sinner!
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