Vatican cracks down on Georgia priest for supporting the ordination of women.
Roy Bourgeois, a 69-year-old priest and a founder of School of the Americas Watch, participated in an Aug. 9 ceremony in Kentucky to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Both Bourgeois and Sevre-Duszynska face excommunication. The penalty, if carried out, is the most severe penalty under church law and would effectively cut off Bourgeois from receiving or administering sacraments.
Bougeois has stated that he intends to travel with a contingent of priests and a bishop to appeal the decision.
"Who are we as men to say to women that our call to the priesthood is valid, but yours is not?" Bourgeois said in a telephone interview. "As Catholics we profess that the invitation to priesthood comes from God, and I believe that we are hampering with the sacred when we say that women must be excluded from being priests. That invitation is from God."
If the Vatican will not reconsider the decision, the excommunication will become effective on Nov. 21 -- the same day that thousands will converge on Fort Benning, Ga. for the eighth annual vigil to close the School of the Americas. The priest plans to continue his work with SOA regardless of the decision.
Bourgeois is a Vietnam veterans and served as a missionary in Bolivia and El Salvador. On Nov. 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her teenage daughter were massacred in El Salvador. A U.S. Congressional Task Force reported that those responsible were trained at the Georgia military school. SOA seeks to close the school, which now operates under the name of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, and to change U.S. foreign policy in relation to Latin America.
The Roman Catholic Womenpriests issued the following response regarding the excommunication decree:
Roman Catholic Womenpriests reject the penalty of excommunication issued by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith on May 29, 2008 stating that the "women priests and the bishops who ordain them would be excommunicated latae sententiae." Roman Catholic Womenpriests are loyal members of the church who stand in the prophetic tradition of holy obedience to the Spirit's call to change an unjust law that discriminates against women. Our movement is receiving enthusiastic responses on the local, national and international level.
We will continue to serve our beloved church in a renewed priestly ministry that welcomes all to celebrate the sacraments in inclusive, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered communities wherever we are called.
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