There are more details at the NCR link, along with his homily.Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, long associated with the cause of Christian non-violence and attempts to close the international school for military training at Fort Benning, Ga., today staked his conscience to a different cause: the ordination of women in the Catholic church.
Bourgeois was a concelebrant and homilist at the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a longtime peace activist and advocate of women’s ordination. The ordination occurred Aug. 9 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington, Ky.
In an interview Aug. 7, two days before the ordination, Bourgeois told NCR that he had thought long and hard about participating after receiving an invitation to the ceremony. “I consulted a lot of friends, I’ve done a lot of discernment, spoken with a lot of women friends. I felt in conscience -- this matter of conscience keeps coming up and I don’t know what other word to use -- if I didn’t attend her ordination, I would have to stop addressing this issue as I do” in speaking engagements at parishes and other Catholic venues around the country.
Though Bourgeois is best known for leading a movement to oppose the training of foreign troops at what once was known as the School of the Americas, he has also long maintained, as a matter of conscience, that women should be ordained. The SOA watch annually draws tens of thousands to Ft. Benning in November for a weekend of teach-ins and demonstrations. The school’s official name was changed in 2001 to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
When questioned, Bourgeois said he knew there could be “serious implications” if he openly participated in a women’s ordination ceremony. While other priests may have attended other women’s ordination ceremonies incognito, a spokesperson for the Women’s Ordination Conference said Bourgeois was the only active male priest to openly participate in such an event.
“For me it seems very right,” he said in the interview. “I would have a problem sleeping at night in the future if I didn’t put my body where my words are.”
In considering the implications, he said, “I don’t know how I could continue to be silent in the church, this is such a big issue for me.
“Over the years and listening to women friends – if one listens, just shuts up and listens to their stories, their faith journey and, in some cases, their call by God to ordination to the priesthood in the Catholic church – there is a problem for us guys in the church. What are we saying? God is calling us but not you? This is heresy. We’re tampering with the sacred here.”
He also speaks about exclusion of women from ordination as discrimination. “We cannot justify discrimination no matter how hard the bishops may try. In the end, it is wrong. It is a sin. That’s how I see it and that’s why I am going to be there Saturday.”
It will be interesting to see what backlash, if any, he receives.
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11 comments:
No backlash is needed. By his very participation he is latae sententiae excommunicated. This penalty can only be removed by the Holy See
His remarks seemed compassionate.
What spoke to me and my experience of church is:
The hierarchy will say, “It is the tradition of the church not to ordain women.” I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and often heard, “It is the tradition of the South to have segregated schools.” It was also “the tradition” in our Catholic church to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church."
At this point in my faith, those are powerful images.
Thank you for reading.
Andrew,
You have stumbled into an instance of non-sequitur - a logical fallacy. The laws and traditions of segregation were instituted by man. The laws and Traditions of the Church are instituted by Christ. One, man, is fallible; the other, Christ, is not. The fallible can not be used to undo the infallible. The creation can not uncreate itself.
FRIENDS--regardless of personal feelings at ordination we take an oath of fidelity which when broken bares the penalty of automatic excomunication.take it from that.what ever happens happens---god bless to all.
Christopher, the laws and Traditions of the Church are instituted by man in an attempt to understand Christ. The idea that the Church is infallible is a manmade tradition that has been used to justify evil for a very long time. It is a power grab by the hierarchy, and always has been.
"By his very participation he is latae sententiae excommunicated."
Ditto.
Let him find his way, his livelihood, his succor from WomynPriests (or whichever) - he has excommunicated himself in his act of disobedience. If that is how he feels, let him find a home among the Episcopalians like the wayward Mathew Fox did...
This is the beginning of a very long conflict to take place in the Catholic Church. As male vocations continue to falter and aging priests retire and/or die, the Church will have to look for creative ways to fill the gap. Perhaps if other sources of vocations are blocked or ignored we will have pre-packaged consecrated hosts that are already to go and be distributed to the faithful without a priest. Perhaps Catholic vending machines that will pop out a pre-consecrated Host for a small fee. Personally, I would rather receive it from a priest, male, female, married or celibate. Gay is not really an issue here as most of us have received Hosts from closeted gay priests. Don't ask, don't tell seems to be alive and well in the Church.
Fr. Roy's "disobedience" is just the beginning 'cause, when the Holy Spirit is ignored, She blows all the harder. Wait and see.
"As male vocations continue to falter and aging priests retire and/or die, the Church will have to look for creative ways to fill the gap. "
The problem with your theory is that there is NOT a crisis.
Numbers are improving left and right, and in diocese where there were few to no seminaries, when the old guard is booted, dies or retired (think "Diocese of Saginaw"!) and new orthodox bishops step in, the vocations program went from 2-3 (in a good year) to 23+.
Add in the 17,000 deacons we have... (There will be 20K+ within 10 years) and consider that the US has right now the same ratio of Catholis to clergy as it did in 1900, and still THREE TIMES the ratio of priests to laity in Mexico or South America.
We DO NOT have a vocations crisis, we have a laity crisis excacerbated by a rejection of fertility. If everyone who self identified as Catholic went to Mass EVERY sunday & holy day, confession once a month, and prayed that their children would consider vocations... Things would be different.
NO, there IS NOT a vocations shortage... and this really tired "WomynPriest" nonsense is NOT prophetic... It is just indulgent and silly.
This guy is already excommunicated by virtue of his participation in this silliness.
Good riddance.
"We DO NOT have a vocations crisis"
Please, please, please tell that to the Archbishop of New Orleans who has decided to close financially solvent and active parishes for absolutely no other reason than that there is a "shortage" of priests to pastor these parishes.
If what you say is true, then the Catholic hierarchy in New Orleans (and perhaps throughout the entire U.S.) is perpetuating a fraud on its flock.
"If what you say is true, then the Catholic hierarchy in New Orleans (and perhaps throughout the entire U.S.) is perpetuating a fraud on its flock. "
What I say IS true and I CANNOT disagree that a number of bishops are simply failing to recognize what THEY are not doing to attract and sustain vocations.
" I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and often heard, “It is the tradition of the South to have segregated schools.” It was also “the tradition” in our Catholic church to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church."
Fear not, once you delve into Catholic Theology at even the more basic levels you will see that these things are not analagous.
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