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PDF versionBourgeois: NY Times story incorrect
by Tom Roberts on Aug. 09, 2011
Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois today said that a story in The New York Times stating he has been dismissed from the Maryknoll Mission Society is incorrect.
Bourgeois has received a second canonical warning from his religious superiors stating that he must recant his support for women's ordination and cease publicly advocating for the cause or face dismissal (see NCR story).
Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, the canon lawyer representing Bourgeois, said today in a phone interview that he would be filing legal papers with the order arguing that the basis for a Vatican excommunication was illegitimate and raising other issues of substance and procedure.
Bourgeois's superiors noted in the second canonical warning that he has a right to defend himself against the warning and to seek legal redress. Bourgeois said in a phone interview today that he intended to take advantage of that right.
If one male order of
If one male order of significance, such as the Maryknoll, stood, the ending of the age of exclusion would become the beginning of the age of includion.
Is it right, holy and just that the Order sacrifice Bourgeois for the sake of their equanimity?
As a former Maryknoll Sister,
As a former Maryknoll Sister, who was married to a former Maryknoll priest (now deceased)-- I think it is a sad day indeed for the Maryknoll Society's Superior General to demand that Fr. Roy recant. This sounds like the Inquisitonal times, when Leonardo was threatened with excommunication because of his scientific proposals (which we know were correct). Maryknoll has worked for social-justice causes in developing countries. Getting one's own house in order, social-justice, human (women's) rights start at home. Preaching to others what we do not practice . . . speaks volumnes.
Fr. Roy is supported by many who celebrate his courage to speak the truth to power. Thank you for covering this crucial happening.
peace,
Carolyn Grassi, Pacifica, CA
My prayers are with you, Fr.
My prayers are with you, Fr. Roy.
It is truly sad that one half
It is truly sad that one half of all humanity is prohibited from God's call to the ministry by one of a myriad regulations by the patriarchal hierarchy dating from feudalism and answering nothing in the Gospel. Based on the flimsiest reasoning, the universal church is held back by its own human insecurity. Someday we will look back at this as if it were a dishonorable chapter in history like Plessy v Ferguson or denying women the right to vote or testify in court. Do we have a living body of Christ, or a lethargic dinosaur?. Time will tell indeed. Let us pray for courage and strength for the rank-in-file clergy in standing up to this fallacy. Canon 1025 - time to amend, time to mend, time to heal. Let us not be silent.
As a cradle Catholic, I find
As a cradle Catholic, I find it appalling that the Church will excommunicate a priest who speaks out for justice and equality while allowing pedophile priests and those who covered up for them to remain in the Church.
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