Will Bourgeois recant? "No Way!" (priest at women’s ordination has met with superiors)

Deaco's Bench ^ | August 19, 2008 | Deacon Greg Kandra

[NYer]

The priest who took part in a women's ordination ceremony has met with his superiors. And this afternoon, the National Catholic Reporter filed this summary:

Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, who concelebrated a Mass at a women’s ordination ceremony earlier this month, has met with leaders of his order religious order, calling the meeting “productive.”

Bourgeois told NCR that he and the Maryknoll leadership had agreed that in the future they would work in conjunction on important issues of justice and faith, including the role of women in the church.

A report based on the day-long meeting Aug. 18 between Bourgeois and the Maryknoll leadership will be sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith for further deliberation, according to Bourgeois.

He said Maryknoll had asked him to refrain from participating in similar ceremonies.

When asked by his superiors whether he would recant for his actions Bourgeois told NCR he said replied: “No way.”

Bourgeois said he could not recant something he held so deeply as a matter of conscience.

According to Maryknoll spokewoman Betsey Guest, after meeting with the Maryknoll leadership Bourgeois and Maryknoll issued a joint statement which reads:

“An investigation has been carried out as to the true facts of the August 9 event in Lexington, Ky. A report of that investigation will be sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome. In the meantime, Fr. Bourgeois has received a canonical warning.

“Contrary to popular understanding, participants in the ceremony, such as Father Bourgeois, were not automatically excommunicated.

“Going forward, Society leadership and Fr. Bourgeois will be more involved in collective discernment over issues of justice, including the role of women in the church.”

Bourgeois said Aug. 19 that he felt support from members of his Maryknoll community, “but has no idea how Rome will respond.”

He said he realizes there could be further sanctions from the Vatican.

Stay tuned. This ain't over yet.

UPDATE: Catholic News Service has a brief report on the meeting, which evidently lasted four hours. The Maryknoll priest expressed a wish to "move ahead" and put this incident behind him.

[NYer]

Fr. Roy Bourgeois was born in Lutcher, Louisiana in 1938. He graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a Bachelor of Science degree in geology.

After college Fr. Roy served as a Naval Officer for four years–two years at sea, one year at a NATO station in Europe, and one year of shore duty in Vietnam. He received the Purple Heart.

After military service, Fr. Roy entered the seminary of the Maryknoll Missionary Order. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1972, and he went on to work with the poor of Bolivia for five years before being arrested and forced to leave the country, then under the repressive rule of dictator and SOA grad General Hugo Banzer.

In 1980 Fr. Roy became involved in issues surrounding US policy in El Salvador after four US churchwomen–two of them his friends– were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Roy became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America. Since then, he has spent over four years in US federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the training of Latin American soldiers at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

[NYer]

More to come ....

[Pyro7480]

Whatever happened to the Maryknolls? Was the “Grunt Padre,” Servant of God Vincent Capodanno an exception among them?

[lastchance]

The Maryknoll Fathers are not exactly known for their loyalty to Catholic Teaching. I would love to see a great many orders told to disband and reorganize as truly Catholic ones.

The CDF will not buy the BS the Maryknolls are selling. Not that the Maryknolls care. This just gives them a chance to claim the Rome is picking on them.

[cake_crumb]

Ah, a whackjob. Wonder if he's friends with Phledger? Will Saint Obama gift us with an illuminated, eloquent and above all, healing statement on female priests in the Catholic church? Inquiring minds want to know!

[livius]

The Maryknolls, like all the other radical leftist groups, are ageing and probably won’t even be around much longer. I am sure Rome is probably relying on this, but it’s a cop-out, as we used to say, and I think it would be salutary for Rome to disband them or at least discipline them. There was a theory that these leftist orders would then attempt to convert themselves into a cause celebre, but I think there are fewer and fewer people every day now who are likely to care about their cause or join it. Well, other than Obama supporters, who are pretty much excommunicated anyway.

[kosta50]

Is the Catholic Church really in such dire straits (i.e. shortage of priests) that it will not excommunicate a priest for something like this?

After all, the priest has no "power" to work alone. Every priest serves a local bishop, who apparently chose to do nothing.

As Shakespeare says "There's something rotten in Danmark."

[B-Chan]

[A.A. Cunningham]

Bourgeois needs to be finally 86'd.

PART II : PENALTIES FOR PARTICULAR OFFENCES

TITLE I: OFFENCES AGAINST RELIGION AND THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH (Cann. 1364 - 1369)

Can. 1364 §1 An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication, without prejudice to the provision of Can. 194 §1, n. 2; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with the penalties mentioned in Can. 1336 §1, nn. 1, 2 and 3.

§2 If a longstanding contempt or the gravity of scandal calls for it, other penalties may be added, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.

Can. 1365 One who is guilty of prohibited participation in religious rites is to be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 751 Heresy is the obstinate denial or doubt, after baptism, of a truth which must be believed by divine and catholic faith. Apostasy is the total repudiation of the christian faith. Schism is the withdrawal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him.

[ichabod1]

So, if a validly ordained (but apostate) priest concelebrates a mass with an invalid “priestess”, is it a valid Mass?

[massgopguy]

So Roy, what you are saying is that Jesus didn’t know what he was doing and you know better.

[HighlyOpinionated]

When asked by his superiors whether he would recant for his actions Bourgeois told NCR he said replied: “No way.”

Bourgeois said he could not recant something he held so deeply as a matter of conscience.

DEFROCK! Or whatever it is we Catholics do. He is NOT a Catholic. It's hard enough to find a REAL Catholic Priest in the USofA as it is. This man needs to be placed in a monastery and not be where he can influence or be influenced by the public.

[veritas2002]

No one should worry in the least. With Archbishop Burke in Rome now, you can expect something much more to be done about this situation and many others. You might not hear Burke’s name attached to what is done, but he hasn’t gone to Rome to sample the cappucino.