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Priest Faces Excommunication
Father Roy Bourgeois Won’t Change His Stance on Women’s Ordination
BY EDWARD PENTIN ROME CORRESPONDENT
December 14-20, 2008 Issue |
Posted 12/8/08 at 10:45 AM
Father Roy
Bourgeois, a Maryknoll Priest from Lutcher, La., is likely to be excommunicated
in the coming days after choosing to be a “concelebrant” and homilist at an
attempted “ordination” of a woman to the priesthood.
A Vietnam war veteran and well-known
peace activist, Father Bourgeois took part in the Aug. 9 ceremony, which saw
Janice Sevre-Duszynska “ordained” at the Unitarian Universalist Church of
Lexington, Ky.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith sent the activist priest a letter Oct. 21 stating that he had 30 days
to recant his “belief and public statements that support the ordination of
women in our Church, or [he] will be excommunicated.” The Vatican stepped in
after the priest publicly rejected efforts by his superiors to return him to
fidelity with the teaching of the Catholic Church.
In an interview with the Register
Dec. 1, Father Bourgeois, who has for many years campaigned for the ordination
of women, was unrepentant.
“I just feel very strongly about
this issue,” he said. “I am following my God in my conscience, and I am very
much at peace with what I am doing.”
He said he has yet to hear back from
the Vatican.
The Church views such actions as a
very grave matter.
“We must be clear about the
seriousness of this,” said a Vatican official, speaking on condition of
anonymity. “He has used his priesthood to participate in an illegal and illicit
action, which is a gross abuse of the priesthood and his position.”
He added: “Scripture is very clear:
If you lead others astray, you will be forced out of communion.”
Father Bourgeois is likely to be
excommunicated latae sententiae (automatically), by force
of the law itself, when Church law is contravened.
Canon 1024 of the Code of Canon Law
states that only baptized males are valid candidates to ordination. No. 1577 of
the Catechism explains why.
“The Lord Jesus,” it reads, “chose
men (viri) to form the college of the Twelve
Apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to
succeed them in their ministry.” It adds that the college of bishops makes the
twelve apostles an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return
and that the Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the
Lord himself. “For this reason the ordination of women is not possible,” it
says.
Pope John Paul II essentially put an
end to further doubts about the matter in 1994, when he published his apostolic
letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Reserving Priestly
Ordination to Men Alone), reaffirming that the Church “has no authority
whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.” This judgment, he added,
“is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”
Father Bourgeois defended his
position in a letter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dated
Nov. 7. He argued that women who feel called to the priesthood have a right to
follow their consciences, some Scripture scholars say there is no biblical
justification for excluding women from the priesthood, and the Church is guilty
of sexism, which is causing a shortage of priests that women’s ordination could
rectify.
Ordained in 1972, Father Bourgeois founded the School of the Americas Watch, an organization which aims to draw attention to any injustices committed by the United States. He likewise sees this issue as one of injustice within the Church by a male hierarchy that is “abusing its power."
“Having an all-male clergy implies
that men are worthy to be Catholic priests, but women are not,” he wrote in his
letter to the Vatican.
However, there are many serious flaws
in Father Bourgeois’ reasoning.
Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of the
Diocese of San Diego said Dec. 2 that Father Bourgeois’ views are “indicative”
of the “serious education” needed on the meaning of conscience.
“One cannot have a properly formed
conscience if one is in direct contradiction to the established and defined
teaching of the Church,” he said, adding that the teaching on a male priesthood
is a settled matter.
Bishop Cordileone, who is a former
official of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest court, said what is
at fault here is a tendency to see the Church as a secular institution.
“[Campaigners for women’s
ordination] look at all these other institutions, women climbing the ladder,
getting positions of authority and power, and they feel it’s being denied them
in the Church,” he explained. “But the Church isn’t a secular institution; it
is the body of Christ. The Church is here to help us work out our salvation and
get to where we want to be: in heaven.”
He added that seeing the Church
through today’s secular values leads to a false understanding of humankind.
“A sound theology has to be based on
a sound anthropology,” he said. “We’ve lost sight that women and men are
unique. Women should not have to assert their equality and dignity by trying to
be like men, at least in roles traditional to men. Society should affirm what
is unique in them as women.”
The bishop said it is understandable
why people are confused about this “because there are so many different ideas
about gender roles.”
With regard to excommunication,
Father Bourgeois believes it is unjust that he should be punished in such a
way. However, excommunication is not meant to be permanent. It is dependent on
the person’s repentance; it is a medicinal penalty that looks to the healing,
conversion and rehabilitation of the person.
Bishop Cordileone rejected Fr. Bourgeois’ accusation that the Church is a sexist organisation as a “selective reading of history,” and said the Church has venerated women as saints and martyrs, and championed the cause of women throughout history.
He also dismissed the idea that
women priests would solve the vocations crisis.
“If marriages are healthy then
families are healthy,” he said, “and we’ll have lots of healthy vocations.”
Edward Pentin
writes from Rome.
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