The Independent News Source
Twitter - Facebook - Email Alerts - RSS
Bourgeois awaits word from Rome
Nov. 21, 2008
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
PDF version
Roy Bourgeois (CNS/Paul Haring)
Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionMaryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a longtime pacifist who is known widely for his opposition to U.S. military policy, faces near-certain excommunication from the Catholic church for his outspoken advocacy of women’s ordination.
Bourgeois was notified Oct. 21 by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he had 30 days in which to recant his position or be excommunicated. Two weeks after receiving the notice, he responded, saying that he could not recant what he considered a matter of justice and conscience. At press time, he said he was still awaiting final word from the Vatican.
Bourgeois, a priest for 36 years, is known primarily as the founder of SOA Watch, a group that began staging annual protests at the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1990. The year before in El Salvador, six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter had been assassinated by troops that had been trained at the school. Scores of other Latin American military personnel involved in egregious human rights abuses have also been trained at the school, which was originally located in Panama.
Following years of critical publicity and attempts to close the school, its name was changed in 2001 to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
This year’s protest at the gates of Fort Benning was scheduled for Nov. 21-23.
In recent years, Bourgeois included in the list of causes for which he advocated opposition to the ban on women’s ordination, an issue he considered a matter of injustice within the church.
His activism in that regard culminated in August when he accepted an invitation to participate in an ordination ceremony in Lexington, Ky., for Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a longtime peace activist who was once arrested for performing civil disobedience at Fort Benning, and a longtime proponent of women’s ordination.
Sevre-Duszynska, the sixth U.S. woman ordained this year as a part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, made national news as early as 1998 when she interrupted an ordination ceremony at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington and asked for ordination. “I am called by the Holy Spirit to present myself for ordination,” she said.
It was that call that Bourgeois said he had heard described by a number of women that convinced him that women were being wrongly excluded from the sacrament of ordination.
In his response to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bourgeois wrote: “When I was a young man in the military, I felt God was calling me to the priesthood. I entered Maryknoll and was ordained in 1972.
“Over the years I have met a number of women in our church who, like me, feel called by God to the priesthood. You, our church leaders at the Vatican, tell us that women cannot be ordained.”
He argues that the church’s position “does not stand up to scrutiny” and cites a Pontifical Biblical Commission report of 1976 that he claims “supports the research of scripture scholars, canon lawyers and many faithful Catholics who have studied and pondered the scriptures and have concluded that there is no justification in the Bible for excluding women from the priesthood.”
-- CNS/Paul Haring: Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois stands with Ursuline Sr. Dianna Ortiz outside a congressional building in Washington April 26. SOA Watch was lobbying for legislation that would cut funding for the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.He argued that the current leadership “implies our loving and all-powerful God, creator of heaven and earth, somehow cannot empower a woman to be a priest.”
“Who are we, as men, to say to women, ‘Our call is valid, but yours is not’? Who are we to tamper with God’s call?” he asked.
Bourgeois acknowledged when he made the decision to concelebrate the Mass at the ordination that he knew the penalty could be severe. Following an earlier ordination of women, a Vatican official had explained that persons directly involved in such a ceremony excommunicated themselves automatically with no possibility of appeal. “The only recourse is repentance,” the official said.
Bourgeois said he hopes that should the next response from Rome confirm his worst fears, that he is excommunicated, that he would be allowed 15 minutes with Pope Benedict XVI and with Cardinal William Levada, head of the congregation on doctrine, to explain his position.
His future status with Maryknoll remains unclear. A spokesperson for the order has said he will remain a member, though unable to function as a priest, unless the Vatican imposes a further punishment that would prohibit his membership.
As scrutiny goes, however, Bourgeois said he has already placed himself under the most wrenching process of judgment, that of his 95-year-old father, Roy Sr. Once he had drafted his response to the Vatican, Bourgeois said, he drove to tiny Lutcher, La., and his childhood home, where his father still lives. In an emotional meeting with his family, including his brother and two sisters, the elder Bourgeois, a lifelong, devout Catholic who still attends daily Mass, gave his son his blessing.
When asked about the controversy, Bourgeois recalled, his father said: “God brought Roy back from the war in Vietnam. God took care of Roy in his mission work in Bolivia and El Salvador, and God is going to take care of Roy now. Roy is doing the right thing by following his conscience, and I support him.”
Bourgeois told NCR in a Nov. 17 interview, “When I received his blessing and the blessing of my family, I felt a great peace. ... And I’ve felt peaceful ever since I came back from Louisiana.”
National Catholic Reporter November 28, 2008
More evidence that the
More evidence that the Vatican is "in denial": Like many people I used the e-mail address listed for Pope Benedict to send a message of concern over the pending excommunication of Father Bourgeios. Almost a week later I received a "mailbox temporarily disabled" message from a Vatican server - I believe in IT jargon that is called a "denial of service" message. How fitting!
almost, but not quite:
almost, but not quite: "Denial of Service" is a particular response to a particular message in another internet protocol. what the message does mean is that the mailbox is likely FULL, not unlike your phone answering machine.
If you violate company
If you violate company policy you can expect to be reprimanded or unemployed. In this case a man in mid-management violated his vow, ignoring the advice of others, and his lawyer says he accepts the punishment. He is a martyr? Hardly! He is a champion of others who spit in the face of those given the authority to bind and loose? And yet these mavericks lust for the authority they claim to disdain. You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but God isn't one of them.
Re: If you violate company
Re: If you violate company policy - I do not know if you are aware of this historical fact or not, but Jesus played a lead role in violating company policy. So did Archbishop Romero and others who have stood up for those who are oppressed by political powers oppressing others - as a matter of fact, Romero also stood up to his Roman Catholic Church superiors because they were acting contrary to the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus was also reprimanded; even worse, He was executed as a criminal because He violated company policy. Jesus was a martyr - and, just like Jesus, this courageous Maryknoll priest did not lust for authority, but as a prophet, confronted an oppressive political church structure that does not exemplify the community that Jesus began. Sexism is a sin. Jesus lived in a patriarchal society - but this is no longer the case, and if one truly understands Jesus' mission and intentions for this faith community, then one can clearly see that not recognizing a woman's call to ordained ministry in the 21st century is an act of sexism and not what Jesus had intended. Because of the gender inbalance in the Catholic priesthood, members of the heirarchy overcompensate abusing their power. This dynamic is of the same thread moving clergy to sexually abuse children and bishops and the Vatican trying to cover up these crimes.
There are Roman Catholics who, very childishly, believe that the political structure of the Catholic Church was ordained by God - however, history clearly and objectively shows that human beings have created that structure. It is safe to say that genuflecting to such a structure is the sin of idolatry - which is considered to be a grievous sin against the first commandment. It is clear that the persons who lust for authority reside at the Vatican. It's interesting to note how quickly the Vatican has responded to this women-priest issue - but how the Vatican appears to be sidestepping their responsibility for their role in the cover-up of the sexual abuse crimes by clergy in response to the lawsuit being filed by the three men from Kentucky who are taking legal action against them.
Comments that support the notion that any clergy has the authority to bind and to loose in the Catholic heirarchy is laughable in light of their own moral corruption. It is precisely this immature understanding of authority that created the seeds for the sexual abuse scandal.
Any Roman Catholic - whether clergy, religious, or lay - who, at this point in history, confuses the Church structure with God is guilty of promoting sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. The sin of idolatry is grave and has grievous consequences. It is time for Roman Catholics to mature in their faith.
In the spirit of correcting
In the spirit of correcting a fellow Catholic, I feel obligated to remind you that Christ was not a martyr. Christ was, is, and for all time will be the Lamb of God. Hir role as the Lamb of God had nothing to with the upheaval of existing political structures of his day. Nor was combatting sexism the point of the Incarnation. The Son of God, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, came to this earth to serve as the perfect propitiation of sins. It would seem a narrow thing if, after reflecting on the Passion of our Lord, it was all for women's ordination or even wordly justice. We have never, ever received a promise from our Lord that we would see justice here on earth. There is no mandate, no scripture, no tradition that promises or implies man is capable of doing such a thing. Christ told us we would always have the poor; Christ told us he came to divide; Christ told (and showed) us that we will suffer, all for His glory. To see women's ordination as supernatural justice is to misunderstand the supernatural aspects of the two sexes. Man and woman, when conforming fully to the nature of their sex, rightly and truly, approach God to their fullest extent. The greatest women of the Church's history never sought power...they sought Christ. Wordly power is a trap, and a tempting one, I know.
I agree that corruption in the Church is wrong and should be fought. It should be fought more strongly, passionately and charitably than any other political fight because it is our bastion of hope in this world of sorrows. And yes, the Church structure is not God...The Church is the Mystical Bride of Christ...so much the more reason to keep it sanctified and drive out the money-changers.
I hope you read this in a sense of charity...I long only to see the truth touch the hearts of all men and women.
Shane
Shane, your reply sounds
Shane, your reply sounds like one coming from the "company complains department". You would do yourself a GREAT favour thinking "outside the box" and for yourself. The Vatican MUST deny womens ordination if it is to retain it's male empire. It has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with Christs mission or message. "Propitiation of Sin", sounds more like a TV evangelist slogan. Yes, I know, I heard that one too during my 15 years of catholic education. However it JUST DOESN'T FIT!!!
Christ rebelled against Rome's opression of the Jewish people. He rebelled against the rich and powerful Jewish Rabis, Scribes and Pharacies who opressed the poor Jewish pesants. The Jewish priestly actions were more abhorant than ROME'S. Rome's opression was honest. They did not believe in the Jewish religion or culture. They were simply victors in battle. However the Jewish "establishment" lagitamized their comfy powerful status using the TORAH and other religious books and laws to gain more power/authority, and more land, which inevitably kept the poor poor and in obeyance to their authority.
Again and Again Christ sides with, walks with, eats with, and preaches to the pesants. Love God and Love one another as I have loved you. The Kingdom is WITHIN.
Love will eminate from the grass roots. Never the top down.
Well said. At sixty five, I
Well said. At sixty five, I have begun to study church history, both imprimatured versions and what I'd call more unbiased versions. The scholorly rebuke from the above named source is well stated. Wake up fellow catholics, the RC church is both HOLY and Unholy. An empire was built and may have served a purpose but any honest study of the Christ message and mission can only shed light on the present hypocricy and dysfunction within the church hierarchy.
History is written by the
History is written by the Victors.
To get an unbiased version of Catholic Church History, one has to go beyond what is taught in some of our "mediocre Catholic Schools" and Colleges.
Karl Adam wrote in 1924, in his book "Spirit of Catholicism" (which can be read online at: www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/SPIRCATH.HTM )
The Spirit of Catholicism (Milestones in Catholic Theology)
by Karl Adam
The Crossroad Publishing Company (November 1, 1997)
ISBN-10: 0824517180; ISBN-13: 978-0824517182
"The Catholic sorrowfully recognizes that even the holders of the highest and most exalted office on earth can be children of their age and slaves of its conceptions, and that the Holy Spirit in governing the Church does not guard every act of the pope and every papal pronouncement from error and delusion, but is infallibly operative only when the pope speaks "ex cathedra," i.e. when basing himself on the sources of the faith and in the fullness of his power as Head of the Church and successor of St. Peter, he pronounces a decision in matters of faith or morals which embraces and binds the whole Church."
"Therefore the men through whom God's revelation is mediated on earth are by the law of their being conditioned by the limitations of their age. And they are conditioned also by the limitations of their individuality. Their particular temperament, mentality, and character are bound to color, and do color, the manner in which they dispense the truth and grace of Christ. And these influences will operate also in their hearers, that is to say in the "learning Church" as well as in the "teaching Church."
"So it may happen, and it must happen, that pastor and flock, bishop, priest, and layman are not always worthy mediators and recipients of God's grace, and that the infinitely holy is sometimes warped and distorted in passing through them. Wherever you have men, you are bound to have a restricted outlook and narrowness of judgment. For talent is rare, and genius comes only when God calls it. Eminent popes, bishops of great spiritual force, theologians of genius, priests of extraordinary graces and devout layfolk: these must be, not the rule, but the exception. God raises them up only at special times, when He needs them for His Church. We may and should pray for them, but we cannot reckon on their coming. And so as a rule it is the ordinary and average man who bears God's truth and grace through the world. The Church has from God the guarantee that she will not fall into error regarding faith or morals; but she has no guarantee whatever that every act and decision of ecclesiastical authority will be excellent and perfect. Mediocrity and even defects are possible. "The weak and the little hath God chosen that He may confound the strong." It is true that the power of divine truth and grace is manifested all the more gloriously because of this weakness. But reflective Catholics must feel and be pained by the conflict which arises out of the contrast between the sublimity, depth and power of divine revelation and the weakness of the human, too- human factor. The same phenomenon is repeated in the history of the Church throughout the centuries which so tragically moulded the relation of our Lord to His disciples. They were unable in their small mirrors to receive all the rays of light which went forth from His divine Person and to transmute them without loss into living forces."
"Still more palpable and painful does the conflict between the power of God and the weakness of man become when the in-streaming life of grace and truth is checked by human passions, by sin and vice, when Christ as He is realized in human history is dragged through the dust of the street, through the commonplace and the trivial, and over masses of rubbish. That is the deepest tragedy, the very tragedy of the Divine, when It is dispensed by unworthy hands and received by unworthy lips. An immoral laity, bad priests, bishops and popes—these are the saddest wounds of the Body of the mystical Christ. This is what grieves the earnest Catholic and inspires his sorrowful lamentation, when he sees these wounds and is unable to help."
*****************************************************************************
Karl Borromäus Adam (Born October 22, 1876 in Freudenberg, Oberpfalz; Died April 1, 1966 in Tübingen) was a German Catholic theologian of the early 20th century.
Karl Adam was born in Bavaria in 1876. He attended the Philosophical and Theological Seminary at Regensburg and was ordained in 1900. Karl Adam spent the next two years doing parish work. Karl Adam received his doctorate at the University of Munich in 1904.
In 1915, he became a professor of theology in Munich. Two years later, he accepted a chair in moral theology at Strasbourg and in 1919 he went to teach dogmatic theology at the University of Tübingen. He retired from that post in 1949.
Karl Adam wrote extensively on theology. His books include: Tertullian's Concept of the Church, Eucharistic Teaching of St. Augustine, Christ Our Brother, The Son of God, The Spirit of Catholicism, Roots of the Reformation and One And Holy.
Karl Adam is best known for his 1924 work, The Spirit of Catholicism.
It has been widely translated, and is still in print today. In The Spirit Of Catholicism, Karl Adam communicates with the laity about the Catholic faith and the Church's role as the keeper of the faith.
In 1934 his integrity compelled him to deliver an outspoken denunciation of the so-called German religion in an address on "The Eternal Christ" which led him into difficulties with the Nazi government. He was threatened with physical harm, his house was riddled with bullets, his life was threatened and his right to lecture was denied him. So strong were the feelings that he aroused that he was forced to flee to the Bishop of Rottenburg for protection. Despite all such threats and attempts at intimidation he steadfastly clung to his position, refusing to compromise what he believed were basic truths. (Foreword to Spirit of Catholicism, 1954 Doubleday)
Peace,
M.Francis
I totally support Father
I totally support Father Bourgeios' position. He will always remain a Catholic priest. There are many of who grew up Catholic who hope and pray that the Vatican will get in touch with reality. The Pope and bishops who support this kind of action need to take a good long look at the reasons individuals are ex communicated. What about cardinal Law and the others who stood by and ignored sexual abuse? Leaders of the catholic church I am ashamed and embarrased by your lack of Courage and sense of Justice.
I support Father Bourgeios.
I support Father Bourgeios. He represents the true meaning of Jesus for me. He really reaches out to embrase and help. What a great priest.
Here are the facts (some are
Here are the facts (some are mine, some are borrowed fromother sources I've collected):
1. God did NOT call women to the priesthood in the Old Testament. He could have, and it would NOT have been out of the ordinary as many of the pagan sects had priestesses.
2. Our Lord did not call women to the priesthood during His Life on earth.
3. The Holy Ghost did not call women to the priesthood on Pentecost - nor ever since.
4. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is based on Divine Revelation, not on the United Nations Charter of Human Rights.
5. Jesus established His Church as a hierrchy with different ministries and callings – not as a democratic society based on majority rule.
6. Our Lord came to perfect the Law, not destroy it. Upon perfecting the Law, He abolished the ancient Priesthood based on family ties, and established the Christian Priesthood based on a Sacrament. He did not see women priests as a perfection to the law of Priesthood.
And, for a little more modern outlook, let's see this quote from the late Pope John Paul II: "In order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgement is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful."
Oops, sorry Fr. B., you lose.
I guess this is somewhat off
I guess this is somewhat off the topic but does the NCR have anything better to publish than the same tired stuff week after week for over 40 years. When one of the Sisters ( a liberal who I love to death) in my parish drops with last week's edition in my mailbox I read it, to make sure I supposedly get all points of view. After only four years in the priesthood I can safely say that I think you're publishing like the Pre-Vatican II Lectionary; the same thing every year. I even began to joke with her when we go to dinner, don't buy it anymore...just change the dates and the names. Even she'll chuckle.
I can usually be assured that at least once a year there will be a story about some poor victimized parishioner group, who it just so happens, wants the final say, the checkbook and the pulpit and altar too being "unfairly" tortured by the "evil" institutional church after they were reprimanded by the "hierarchy" like a bishop for marrying two transexual lesbian rabbis.
The Father Roy Story is just another example of this. You can't con-celebrate at an "ordination" of a womanpriest and expect an "'atta boy" He knew this was going to happen...let him accept the results of his actions.
In addition, there will always be stories about how guys like me....are evil. Many new priests, who happened to be very well educated, just want to live what Christ, through His Church, teaches. We don't blindly, as many progressive communites do, find out what Joan Chittester or Richard McBrien think before we know what we shall believe.
Finally, I feel bad because I really did try, unlike many of my classmates (there were 23 of us in two years), to actually keep an open mind to different perspectives by reading your paper. I sustained no shortage of jokes and fun about this...but i tried because of a genuine desire to understand and dialogue with those with whom I disagreed. It's over now...because there's nothing more to read...I've read it all before.
During my time in the
During my time in the seminary I would spend a good deal of time in the library because I was naturally a reader (I was also the seminary bartender, go figure?). In the periodical section I would take the time to read everything from the Wanderer to the NCR. Even now, as a parish priest (who's loving every minute of it) one of the Sisters drop the NCR off in my mailbox every single week. The Sister is a liberal, who I like very very much. However, just recently I asked her to stop.
I did it because I have come to the realization that the National Catholic Reporter is somewhat like the Pre-Vatican II Lectionary...a says the same thing every single year. This Fr. Roy story is just one example of this.
One night I took Sister out to dinner and she brought my copy to the car, dropped in the back seat and said, "Here you go" I replied "I don't want it anymore". At dinner I even suggested she stop getting it and just change the dates and names of the stories could it would always repeat itself because it had become so predictable. Even she had to chuckle.
Over the soup course I joked with her saying that I knew that there would at least be one story per month about a poor victimized pairsh group who ran the parish, had the checkbook, gave the sermons, "celebrated" Eucharist, and all while blessing the marriages of lesbian rabbis have been pushed out by a clerical new pator or even tortured by the evil hierarchy. She protested and I laughed and said, "you know it's true."
Secondly, I continued over the main course, there will be a story on how horrible guys like me are. A I did this I made a scary face and made horns with my fingers over my head. I did this because I am a recently ordained priest so therefore I automatically fall into a certain catagory. It would seem that it is the NCR crowd that is doing the stereotyping or "clerical profiling."
Continuing on as we conversed, I can always ensure a reasonable amount of hubris and contempt to seethe from Richard McBrien about anything that comes from Rome as if a given decision were hand delivered from the Devil himself. Then we can read about some new Native-American dance-prayer or perhaps a glowing review of a Catholic politician who has couraguously voted for Partial-Birth Abortion. The NCR can always be counted on for a knee-jerk dogmatic dissent in anything Catholic.
Sister said that she was suprized that actually asked for it originally because I did seem like the type who would. I told her she was right because I used to be teased and joked by the guys in my gang (around 20 of us between two classes in the seminary) because I was still reading NCR trying to keep an open perspective. I have discovered that my open mind was only on one end not on the NCR's...it would seem that after 40 years the the ideas are not so fresh any more.
As our evening ended she even said that the NCR has really grown old...perhaps it was useful at one time but the time has come...the torch has been passed or just went out. When she got out of the car after dinner she looked at the lonely paper in the back seat...I looked back and said, "Don't worry I'll wing it, I've got some stuff to trow out anyway.
It is obvious from your
It is obvious from your poorly written piece that, unlike Fr. Bourgeois, you serve Rome, not God.
Now God is so good that he would forgive you for fooling around with a religious woman and making stupid statements and comparisons.
Rome, however, bad as it is, would never forgive you but rather rebuke and repudiate you and apply you the strict disciplinary measures you deserve.
You are living proof that the Church is resorting to the shallowest and least illuminated candidates to become seminarians and, eventually and unfortunately, parish priests.
"He is a champion of others
"He is a champion of others who spit in the face of those given the authority to bind and loose?"
You mean, kind of like Jesus did? Fr. Roy knows who he serves and it is God, not Rome.
Thank you, recently ordained
Thank you, recently ordained priest. You have hit the nail squarely on the head.
When the Vatican hierarchical
When the Vatican hierarchical prelates demand conscience objection provisions for Catholics who refuse to engage in abortive practices but refuse to grant same to those who object to the slaughter of men, women and children and cause scandal by threatening to excommunicate these good people, we know they have their own personal power-trip agendas and do not represent Jesus or the Christian God in any way, shape or form.
They should all be thrown out of the temple, rebuked and repudiated.
Forgiveness from the Church
Forgiveness from the Church is always within grasp. But the devil of pride has paralyzed the arms. This is what gets these people and their twisted example eventually ousted. They have done damage to the Church over the last 40 - 50 years with their new religion. And have misled so many faithless souls. Hopefully they will all repent. But the new position coming from the Church is the same one that went into hiding a half century ago: accountability. What goes around, comes around.
God and Jesus chose women
God and Jesus chose women apostles too to witness the most important events of Christianity : Jesus it is said in the NT chose women apostles and disciples from the beginning of his ministry in Galilee and the women were loyal and faithful, right to Pentacost and to Early Church as well. God and Jesus chose women to be Apostles and co-workers in the church. Paul praises many women apostles too. Men and women together, though none are called "priests" by Jesus and none are ordained by Jesus, Jesus had all his apostles, women too, with him at Last Supper. The bible says all his disciples were there, so that includes women.
Fr Roy Bourgeois is with Jesus and God, that women too are validly called to be ordained. It is the NEW Testament, and Jesus welcomes women too as well as men, to be his ordained servants of the church, what we now call priests.
Please consider the NT and look beyond the few passages (that contradict the rest of the NT!!! )about silencing women. Jesus never silenced women, he made women public witnesses and public preachers, teachers of the male apostles. Mary Magdalene, Samaritan woman, Apostle Junia. Check it, it is in the NT.
Post new comment