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Fr. Roy Bourgeois may be excommunicated for supporting female ordination
By Rabbi Michael Lerner (about the author) Page 7 of 7 page(s)
Increasingly in recent years, however, he has become a vocal critic of the church's ban on women's ordination. He said he kept meeting women who said they had a call from God for ordination. "Who are we, as men, to say their call is illegitimate," he regularly asked.
For Bourgeois, the issue was a matter of justice, and he reached a point this past summer when he could no longer remain on the sidelines. Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a regular protester at the School of the Americas, asked Bourgeois to attend her ordination Aug. 9 in Lexington, Ky. She became the sixth woman to be ordained in the United States this year as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement.
The Vatican response arrived Oct. 21, threatening excommunication unless Bourgeois recanted his statements saying the church is wrong and unjust in maintaining the ban.
When he received the letter, Bourgeois, canceled all plans. He travels widely, giving talks and consulting with representatives of Latin American governments to persuade them to stop sending soldiers to the United States for training.
He decided to go into solitude for two weeks to meditate and pray and to work on his response to the Vatican. He completed the response Nov. 7, mailed it and headed off on a seven-hour drive to his childhood home in tiny Lutcher, La., where his father still lives.
He had arranged a meeting with his siblings and his father. His sisters, especially, were fearful about what the news would do to his father.
"When I received his blessing and the blessing of my family, I felt a great peace. A total peace came over me. And I've felt peaceful ever since I came back from Louisiana." Nothing the Vatican does, he said, can take that peace and serenity away.
Still, he prepares for a lonely move into the unknown. Fellow priests have called and written to voice their agreement and support, but all of them say they can't do it publicly because it would jeopardize their ministries and positions within the church. He doesn't know what kind of association, if any, he'll be able to maintain with Maryknoll in the future.
Bourgeois expects a final word from Rome soon. His deadline to recant is Nov. 21.
Betsy Guest, Maryknoll spokesperson, said the society was led to believe that a response will be made Nov. 24. She said that unless Rome levies further penalties, such as revoking Bourgeois' membership in the society, he can remain a member of Maryknoll, though he will be unable to function as a priest. He hopes that when the final word comes he would be given the courtesy of 15-minute visits with Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that issued the warning of excommunication.
"I am not angry," said Bourgeois, who acknowledged early on that his attendance at the ordination could have serious consequences. "I don't want to respond in anger. I would like to meet with them personally to explain my position and make my appeal."
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