Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a longtime peace-and-justice activist, founded the School of the Americas Watch and opposed the training of Latin American troops in civilian-targeted warfare at Ft.Benning, GA. In recent years, Roy has become a vocal supporter of Catholic women who are demanding gender equality in the Church, including the right to serve as women priests. Despite Vatican pressures, he has refused to recant.
Somebody Needs to Show this to Pope Francis
Don’t Catholics profess that men and women are created of equal worth and dignity? Don’t the Holy Scriptures state clearly that “There is neither male nor female. In Christ you are one” (Galatians 3:28)? Don’t priests profess that the call to be a priest is a gift and comes from God? And the all-important question I asked myself and fellow priests was this: Who are we, as men, to say that our call from God is authentic, but God’s call to women is not?
……after participating in the ordination of a woman in 2008 that I received a letter from the Vatican stating that I must recant my support for the ordination of women or I would be excommunicated, and that the ordination of women was a “grave scandal” …..
I wrote the Vatican saying that my conscience would not allow me to recant. I stated that our conscience is sacred because it always urges us to do what is right, what is just. In essence, I said, you are telling me to lie and tell you that I do not believe that God created men and women of equal worth and dignity and calls both to be priests. This I cannot do; therefore I will not recant.
….In October of 2011, I joined an international delegation of women’s ordination leaders going to the Vatican. We …. maintained a vigil in St. Peter’s Square, holding banners that said: “ORDAIN CATHOLIC WOMEN” and “GOD IS CALLING WOMEN TO BE PRIESTS.”
… It saddens me that so many of my fellow priests, men, we claim that we, and we alone, can interpret the Holy Scriptures and know the will of God. We profess that men and women are created in the image and likeness of God, but as men we have created God in our own image. And this God is very small, very male, and sees women as the lesser of men.
On November 19, 2012, I was notified by Maryknoll that the Vatican had expelled me from my Maryknoll community of 46 years and the priesthood. This is very difficult and painful…..I notified the Vatican and the leaders of Maryknoll that they can dismiss me, but they cannot dismiss the issue of gender equality in the Catholic Church. As a Catholic priest for 40 years, my only regret is that it took me so long to confront the issue of male power and domination in our Church.