Father Roy faces expulsion from Maryknoll

[roody]

From: Bill Quigley, Attorney for Father Roy Bourgeois, [e-mail]
7214 St. Charles Avenue, Campus Box 902, New Orleans, LA 70118

August 8, 2011

Dear Friends:

Our brother, Father Roy Bourgeois, needs your immediate solidarity. The Maryknoll
community has taken another step towards expulsion of Father Roy for speaking out in
favor of the ordination of women priests. Father Roy has said that, as a matter of
conscience, he must speak out against the exclusion of women from the priesthood
both because it defies faith and reason and because the exclusion is rooted in
sexism. Despite the threats to expel him, Father Roy refuses to recant.

It is time for people of good will to take action. Please contact Father Ed
Dougherty, the Superior General of Maryknoll, and ask him not to expel Father Roy
Bourgeois for advocating for women priests. Here is how to contact Father
Dougherty:

Father Edward Dougherty
Maryknoll Fathers
PO Box 303
Maryknoll, NY 10545-0303
Fax: [phone] or Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

I am one of the lawyers on the team working with Father Roy. Below is a link to the
letter Father Roy recently received from Maryknoll. It is the official second and
perhaps final notice threatening to immediately expel him from the community.

Below is a link to Father Roy's response to Maryknoll. You can read it and see
where he stands. His letter is a simple direct invitation to dialogue about
inclusion of women in the priesthood and a call for the protection of conscience –
key foundation principles in any institution which respects human dignity. Contrast
his letter with one from Maryknoll and judge which best reflects the spirit of hope,
justice, respect and love.

Father Roy's Letter to Maryknoll:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/727/images/FatherRoy.pdf

Maryknoll Letter to Father Roy:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/727/images/Maryknoll.pdf

Father Roy has been a priest for 39 years and a member of Maryknoll for 44 years.
We cannot allow Maryknoll, pushed hard no doubt by fundamentalist forces of the
institutional church in Rome, to silence a prophetic voice of conscience and
justice. Galileo was silenced by the church in 1633 for saying the earth revolves
around the sun and they did not admit their error and apologize until 360 years
later in 1992. Truth and justice cannot be expected to wait that long. Hundreds of
priests already publicly support Father Roy's right to speak his conscience.
Thousands more women and men across the world support this issue and Father Roy as
well. Maryknoll cannot and should not be party to a modern day silencing.

Thank you for your action and solidarity. Please send me a copy of what you send
Maryknoll and I will make sure Father Roy knows of your support.

Peace and justice,

Bill Quigley

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Letter fired off:

Dear Father Dougherty,

Recently, it has come to my attention that Father Roy Bourgeois is facing expulsion, due to his advocacy of female priests. I feel I shouldn't have to remind the good father of the recent intense media criticism of the Church due its perceived attitudes toward women, including the fiction so many people believed to be true, The DaVinci Code, with its implications that these perceived attitudes cover dark secrets. It is my impression that this potential expulsion, though the individual case may have merits I am not aware of, will inflame further such sentiments against the church and therefore should be avoided so that the Church may focus on its fundamental mission of spreading the Word of Christ.

Your friend from a distance,
(napoleon_in_rags)

That's all 100% true too. Are they focusing on the core mission, or creating a circus? Its time for people to evaluate what they are really about at the end of the day, and let the details work themselves out.

[The Doctor.]

6. Great letter.

One would think that simple reason should get through to these people, but remember that we're dealing with fear, not reason.

[roody]

19. Thank you, nir.

[truedelphi]

2. One of the reasons that I left the Cathlic Church - the total irrational

prejudice against women as being able to be ordained as priests.

It makes no sense at all. And especially given the record of male priests in terms of how much damage the priest-based pedophilia did - you'd think that those events alone would cause the Catholic Authorities to have a change of heart and mind.

[laconicsax]

3. And to think...if he raped a child he'd just be tranferred. n/t

[rug]

4. But since he didn't, you'll just have to address the topic at hand.

[okasha]

5. Oh, snap.

n/t

[laconicsax]

13. Good to see you find amusing the RCC policy of harboring serial child rapists.

Do you find it abhorrent that the RCC tolerates priests being serial child rapists but not priests who want to discuss the inclusion of women into the priesthood?

I'd have thought you'd at least mention the irony of the Vatican being called "fundamentalist," a term invented for a Protestant movement but oh well, I guess you save arguments about semantics and spelling for atheists.

[Pooka Fey]

8. + 1

[laconicsax]

12. You mean the fact that the RCC is staunchly anti-women?

If I were Catholic, I'm not sure which I'd be find more embarrassing:

-The fact that merely suggesting a dialogue on having female priests is grounds for expulsion.

OR

-The fact that being a serial child rapist isn't.

Which of these is more embarrassing to you, rug?

[jberryhill]

14. Okay.... Why did this guy join an organization that bans women?

He just noticed there were no women priests?

Obviously, he had no problem with it on the way in.

He needs to find himself a different club to join.

[roody]

20. He was young and idealistic.

That was 40 years ago. Roy Bourgeois is a hero, founder of School of the Americas Watch. www.soaw.org

Edited to add that his mind was colonized by our culture. He also served as an officer in Vietnam.

[jberryhill]

21. Yeah... that's a great ideal to which to aspire

Obviously, he has outgrown it.

[Goblinmonger]

15. You noticeably haven't.

What are your thoughts about the inherent sexism of the RCC? I think it sucks and can't believe a progressive would be a member of that organization. What think you?

[deacon_sephiroth]

9. maybe it's not too late? NT

[AlecBGreen]

10. sad but true

sickening

[Pooka Fey]

7. This issue is the root of my problem with the Catholic church

I truly believe that had the Church allowed women into the priesthood, the church would not have become the monster that it is today. The church would also be much more relevant in the public sphere with women serving. I think places of worship have an important place in the community.

What I always admired about Catholicism is that, and I speak from personal experience, there was a "pass" given for differences with Rome - for example no one was considered a "sinner" for practicing birth control in my parish - it was a personal matter between the woman and God. This was like our unofficial California theology. Apparently now, and I have left the Church for decades now, this kind of "Rome can butt out" attitude rarely exists.

I grew up in a 1960's and 70's Catholic church committed to social justice issues - civil rights, feeding the poor, youth services, solidarity and community. Those aspects of the Christian life and faith have been inundated by the crazy fundamentalist Christian taliban, to the point where many in the general public equate Christianity with Sarah Palin's values - the details of which are very well known.

Thank goodness there is finally a priest willing to take a stand. I will take the time to write a very thoughtful letter in support of Father Roy.

Thank you for posting.

[jberryhill]

11. Pssst... Hey Roy.... Gotta hot tip for you....

The Catholic Church doesn't give two shits about women.

These stories are always amusing - "Man Joins Voluntary Club, Decides To Change Rules"

You see, Roy, it's not your club. Now, you can go start your own club, put yourself in charge, and then YOU can decide who to keep out, and what it is that everyone in your club needs to do so as not to go to Hell like everybody who isn't in your club.

[struggle4progress]

16. That's too bad. Maryknoll has a long progressive history. But the conservative-dominated hierarchy

seems determined to wage authoritarian battles

[laconicsax]

17. Is misogyny part of that long progressive history?

:shrug:

[struggle4progress]

18. The Catholic hierarchy has been extraordinarily regressive on the question of women's equality, but

attitudes at lower levels have varied considerably

[laconicsax]

22. Clergy and parishoners who have a problem are under no obligation to stay.

I've seen arguments analogous to 'it's MY church, not their church' with 'they' being the hierarchy as an excuse to simply put up with the extraordinarily regressive (I like that expression) attitudes of the RCC and it may be an honest appraisal of how rank-and-file Catholics feel, but it's a false claim. The hierarchy IS the Church and rank-and-file Catholics who oppose the hierarchy aren't doing themselves any favors by supporting it through tithes and membership.

I'm not aware of a time in recent history when the most conservative clergy (i.e. those most opposed to change) weren't in charge, either as Pope or the Cardinals and Bishops who run the show.

[struggle4progress]

24. But, really, why should you object, if some Catholics find something attractive about the Church,

without regarding it as a perfect institution, and set out to attempt to reform it from within? The Catholic Church provided Roy Bourgeois opportunity to do a number of things he considered important, such as serving the poor in Bolivia. And within this context, he has continued to speak his conscience

[laconicsax]

25. People have been trying to reform it from within for nearly 500 years.

The RCC doesn't move on its own.

[struggle4progress]

27. Oh, for much longer than that: it's nearly two millennia of infighting by now

[laconicsax]

28. Thank you for re-proving my point.

Parishioners and low-level clergy who want to change the Church from within would have an easier time proving the transubstantiation scientifically.

[jberryhill]

23. Do you know the current rate of head covering in the US and abroad?

I am not Catholic, but have occasion to attend mass when I travel, because I have free time on Sundays and it is the best way to see churches of historical significance in many places. I also enjoy seeing relics, and some of the good ones only come out during mass (such as the Holy Blood in Bruges). The devotion is almost palpable in some places, like Turin.

It is also interesting to hear mass in many languages, to pick up vocabulary. "Holy Spirit" in Dutch almost made me chuckle.

However, there does not seem to be much of a consensus on whether women must cover their heads. In Seoul, the ushers hand out lace fabric head coverings for those women who "forgot" them, for example.

Now, it is very hard to imagine that an organization which cannot agree on whether God gets upset if women's heads aren't covered is going to make substantial progress anytime soon because of a handful of American priests.

[struggle4progress]

26. Dunno. I'd guess they follow local customs. Wikipedia says the Catholics made

head-covering mandatory in 1917 and removed the requirement in 1983. Not being Catholic, I can't say how widely it was enforced -- but I'd guess, based on some of the Catholics I've known, that a number of parish priests managed never to notice whether or not women actually covered their heads