Dissident Priest Being Dismissed

The priest who has made a career of going around the country agitating for Call to Action type causes—he made a stop at our former parish—has finally been called to account, as reported by the National Catholic Register.

An excerpt.

“COLUMBUS, Ga. (CNA) —The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers have notified Father Roy Bourgeois he will be dismissed from their order unless he renounces his “defiant stance” against Catholic teaching on the ordination of women.

“Denver-based canon lawyer J.D. Flynn said the continuing disciplinary action against the excommunicated priest is about restoring justice and repairing scandal.

“The issue is that Father Bourgeois is in a position of public ministry in the Church. He is perceived to be speaking for the Church. When he says things which aren’t consistent with what we know to be true, it can lead people into sinfulness,” Flynn told CNA on Aug. 9.

“When the sacraments are simulated, we are all wounded by that,” he added. “All of us in the Church suffer when we lose clarity about the sacraments and run into error. No priest should be permitted to lead us into error.”

“Flynn said the disciplinary action is “really about the Church trying to make clear that a person who is leading us into sinfulness is not acting as minister of the Church.”

“Father Bourgeois is a human-rights activist who founded the group SOA Watch, which monitors the U.S. government’s training of military personnel in Latin America. He was excommunicated in 2008 for participating in an attempted ordination of a woman to the priesthood at a Unitarian church in Lexington, Ky.

“Maryknoll superior general Father Edward Dougherty, in a July 27 letter, warned Father Bourgeois of his imminent dismissal on the grounds that he had shown “obstinate disobedience” to his superiors in violation of his oath about a “grave matter.” The letter also cited his “diffusion of teachings” opposed to the “definitive teaching of John Paul II and the magisterium of the Catholic Church” as well as the “grave scandal” he has caused to the people of God, to the Church, and to many Maryknoll priests and brothers.

“The order gave the priest 15 days after receiving the letter to renounce publicly his stand on women’s ordination, or face dismissal.

“Father Bourgeois’ Aug. 8 reply said that Catholic Church teaching “excludes women from the priesthood” and “defies both faith and reason and cannot stand up to scrutiny.” He said the teaching is “rooted in sexism,” which “like racism, is a sin.”

“He said the instruction to recant is “telling me to lie and say I do not believe that God calls both men and women to the priesthood.”

“This I cannot do; therefore, I will not recant,” he said.”