Posted on 11/23/2012 3:32:15 AM PST by IbJensen
MARYKNOLL, NY, November 21, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has canonically dismissed Roy Bourgeois from the priesthood because of his public dissent from the Catholic Church’s teaching on the ordination of women. Bourgeois’ dismissal was announced by the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, also known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, in a Nov. 19 statement.
As a Maryknoll priest during 2008, Bourgeois participated in a mock ordination of a woman and a simulated Mass at a Unitarian church in Lexington, Kentucky. The radical feminist group Roman Catholic Womanpriests staged the ceremony.
Subsequently Bourgeois was given a “canonical warning” that his actions could result in his excommunication and expulsion from his religious order.
(Roy Bourgeois with two women who attempted to be ordained in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church teaches that it does not have the authority to ordain women, and that any such ordinations are invalid.)
Bourgeois was given thirty days to recant his position, but instead he initiated a campaign against the Church, and published a letter insisting the Church was “wrong” on women’s ordination. “After much prayer, reflection and discernment, it is my conscience that compels me to do the right thing,” he wrote. “I cannot recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church.”
He went on to demand that “all Catholics, fellow priests, bishops, Pope Benedict XVI and all Church leaders at the Vatican ... speak loudly on this grave injustice of excluding women from the priesthood.”
The Vatican responded with a decree saying that any Catholic bishop who attempts the ordination of a woman or any woman who participates in such a ceremony, is subject to automatic excommunication.
This decree is backed up by the late Holy Father John Paul II’s 1994 Apostolic Letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, in which he states, “In order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, ... I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”
Bourgeois was excommunicated “Latae sententiae” (meaning “sentence already passed” or automatically) for not recanting his public stance supporting the ordination of women.
The Maryknoll statement says that while “the Holy See and the Maryknoll Society have encouraged his reconciliation with the Catholic Church,” the priest instead “chose to campaign against the teachings of the Catholic Church in secular and non-Catholic venues.”
“This was done without the permission of the local U.S. Catholic Bishops and while ignoring the sensitivities of the faithful across the country. Disobedience and preaching against the teaching of the Catholic Church about women’s ordination led to his excommunication, dismissal and laicization.”
Bourgeois, 74, called his expulsion from the priesthood and the Maryknoll order “very difficult and painful,” in a Nov. 20 statement published by the “Women’s Ordination Conference.”
“The Vatican and Maryknoll can dismiss me, but they cannot dismiss the issue of gender inequality in the Catholic Church,” the statement said. “The demand for gender equality is rooted in justice and dignity and will not go away.”
The Maryknoll Fathers’ statement says, “Mr. Bourgeois freely chose his views and actions, and all the members of the Maryknoll Society are saddened at the failure of reconciliation. With this parting, the Maryknoll Society warmly thanks Roy Bourgeois for his service to mission and all members wish him well in his personal life.
“In the spirit of equity and charity, Maryknoll will assist Mr. Bourgeois with this transition,” the Fathers conclude.
This unworthy troublemaker did his own thing for most of his years as a priest, and while his and Maryknoll's actions have not been pleasing to God, nor the post Vatican II Church, what would one expect? He should never have been ordained in the first place and it would appear that the only way the Catholic Church will again become catholic is to repute the evils promulgated by Vatican II.
I pray the Church will get itself in order before the Second Coming.
When we have spineless Bishops and ones that disregard dogmatic teaching in lieu of “Social Justice” what do you expect. Chicago has Phlegher Maryknoll has Roy Bougeries (sp?) and the cycle continues.
Chicago has Phlegher .....
He should be next.
CC
>any Catholic bishop who attempts the ordination of a woman or any woman who participates in such a ceremony, is subject to automatic excommunication.
What exactly is the problem with a female holding the job title that a male holds? Does it involve muscular physical labor that a woman can’t physically perform on average?
Serious question.
The problem is that a woman cannot be ordained. There’s no way to ordain a woman. The Church has no power ordain women. Jesus and the Church never did it and won’t do it now.
In the Catholic Church, the central focus and purpose of the service is not the preaching (as in many other churches) but the Eucharist.
And Catholics believe that in the Mass, through the actions of the priest standing in the shoes of Christ ("alter Christi"), the bread and wine become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Himself, for the benefit of His Bride, the Church.
So there's a profound ontological problem with a woman taking on that role.She cannot be a bridegroom, no matter how badly she wants to.
Jesus never did it because societal norms and laws of the time of Jesus wouldn’t allow.
That has nothing to do with God.
And Paul’s obvious disdain for women aside, Paul was not a writer of rules as he was not a Christian until after Jesus was in heaven.
Honestly, Jesus never drove a car either. Are you sinning if you aren’t Amish?
If you have to ask the question, you wouldn’t understand the answer.
He did exactly what He intended.
Serious question.
Serious answer: ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS
Having compassion for those ‘trapped in sin’ is not the same as placing a woman in a dangerous position by supporting her as the head of a church.
In those days (as in some current nations), that kind of talk and thinking would get the woman killed.
You wrote:
“Jesus never did it because societal norms and laws of the time of Jesus wouldn’t allow.”
False. Jesus’ spiritual plan was not bound by any societal norm. He was forbidden by societal norms from talking to Samaritan women - yet He did so at the well.
“That has nothing to do with God.”
Jesus is God. It, therefore, has everything to do with God.
“And Paul’s obvious disdain for women aside,”
There was no disdain. St. Paul clearly admired women: Prisca, Phoebe, Mary, Junia, Julia, Tryphaena and Tryphosa,
Euodia and Syntyche, Chloe, Lydia.
“Paul was not a writer of rules as he was not a Christian until after Jesus was in heaven.”
Jesus founded the Church, not Paul. Paul passed on what was revealed to him.
You wrote:
“Honestly, Jesus never drove a car either. Are you sinning if you aren’t Amish?”
Driving a car is not a spiritual matter and has nothing to do with the work of God in any way. Feel free to keep making silly and unrelated analogies. That’s what liberals like you do.
Painting with a pretty broad brush, aren’t we?
St. Peter's wife died a martyr. Just being a Christian was enough....sex didn't matter, nor did being "head of a church".
But the simple fact is that JC set it up with an all-male priesthood. There is no biblical support (or for Catholics, biblical OR traditional support) for a female priesthood. There "is" such support for female deacons (deaconesses), though there are none today, AFAIK. THAT could legitimately be changed. Female priests....no.
The Church obviously has no problem with women being in positions of power (as many nuns and other female religious) have shown throughout history.
Apart from theological reasons, just look at the sort of folks who want to be ‘women priests’ in the Catholic Church. These are all super-libs into everything orthodox Christianity isn’t—try to find one woman who wants to be a priestess who also thinks abortion and ‘gay marriage’ is wrong. They can’t even bring themselves to use the right term, and come up with meaningless words like ‘woman priest,’ which is like saying ‘man priestess.’
Freegards
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