Expulsion looms for unrepentant priest

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

An unrepentant priest, American Maryknoll father, Roy Bourgeois will not recant for participating in the attempted ordination of a woman and he faces laicisation and explusion from his religious order.

“I cannot do it,” said Father Bourgeois, 72. “Rome wants two words from me to make this go away: ‘I recant.’ Those words I cannot say. They are asking me to lie, by saying that I think God does not call women to the priesthood. I believe in my heart that he does.”

Bourgeois was excommunicated in August 2008 when he preached at an ordination ceremony organised by “Roman Catholic Womenpriests.”

In March this year, following the request of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Maryknoll superiors said if Bourgeois didn’t recant they would seek his formal removal from the order and laicisation.

“Sufficient time has now passed for you to consider the gravity of the matter,” the canonical warning said. “You are hereby asked one final time by the superior general and his council to publicly recant and accept the teaching of the Church on this serious matter concerning priestly ordination and the explicit teaching of the Church.”

Because he refuses to renounce his support for allowing women to become priests, he will lose his membership in the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and in the priesthood itself.

Father Bourgeois has been a popular member of the Maryknoll Fathers for 44 years and a priest for 38. He is known as a peace activist, who first contemplated the priesthood after suffering a near-fatal injury as a Marine on the battlefield in Vietnam.

“He has done many good works, and we all like him and consider him a brother,” said Maryknoll spokesman Mike Virgintino.

In a statement, Roman Catholic Womenpriests, urged “all people of good will to stand behind Father Roy Bourgeois, a true champion of peace and justice, who refused to be cowed by men who support an unjust law that knowingly and persistently discriminates against half of the Body of Christ.”

Sources