RELIGION:

WHO IS TO BE EXCOMMUNICATED ?:

The following is from the School of the Americas Watch. The SOA Watch is dedicated generally to pressuring the USA to observe standards of decency in its dealings with Latin America and specifically to close down the "torture school" formerly known as the School of the Americas. Father Roy Bourgeois has been one of the movers and shakers behind this organization, and he is presently facing the threat of excommunication due to his participation of the ordination of a female priest in contradiction to orthodox Catholic Canon Law. The following tells about his case and asks you to write/fax in solidarity with him.

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Father Roy Bourgeois Update:

Father Roy will be among the SOA Watch activists who will converge in Washington, DC for the SOA Watch Encuentro and the Lobby Days from February 14-17, 2009. Join us!

As many of you know, Father Roy has been threatened with excommunication by the Vatican after he participated in the ordination of former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience Janice Sevre-Duszynska. Father Roy is currently waiting for a response to a letter to the Vatican, in which he stated that he can not recant his belief and public statements that support the ordination of women, as the Vatican had requested.

Some of you have asked for addresses to write to in support of Father Roy and to ask that he not be excommunicated. Click here for a list of addresses.

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The list of addresses suggested by the SOAW follows below. Take special note of this. This may be the only chance you will ever get in this life to send a letter of protest to the Pope and also to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also known as the Holy Inquisition.

The move to excommunicate Bourgeois is particularly inopportune for the Vatican given the recent controversy over the lifting of the excommunication of the 4 bishops ordained by the late Marcel Lefebvre. The traditionalist catholic followers of Lefebvre's sect and his front organization The Society of St. Pius X has often been tainted by accusations of neo-fascism and anti-semitism, and one of the "bishops" whose excommunication has been lifted, Richard Williamson of England, is an active and vocal Holocaust denier. The scandal of rapprochement with this sect has led to considerable pressure on and disapproval of the present Pope. The idea that the Vatican should be considering excommunicating someone like Bourgeois while, at the same time, welcoming the likes of these back into the fold is particularly scandalous.

As a point of interest the followers of Lefebvre, who broke away from the Catholic Church in protest over the liberalization of Vatican Council II should never be confused with the 'Old Catholics' who split with Rome after Vatican I in 1870 because they couldn't accept the doctrine of Papal infallibility. The Old Catholics are considerably more liberal than the orthodox Church, and many of their congregations accept the ordination of women- the issue at the heart of the complaint against Bourgeois. There is some controversy over whether women were ordained in the early Church. I am hardly competent to form a firm opinion on this matter, but judging from the example of the Old Catholics such a thing is not totally outside the ideas of at least some on Church tradition.

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Support Father Roy:
Some have asked for addresses to write their support of Fr. Roy and to ask that he not be excommunicated. Petitions are also appropriate.

Please write or fax or email to Pope Benedict XVI, and/or the Pope’s Ambassador to the U.S., the Apostolic Nuncio, and/or the Congregation for Doctrine of Faith, the group that is moving toward excommunication of Fr. Roy Bourgeois, and/or The leaders of the Maryknoll Order.
Their addresses are below.
ADDRESSES TO WRITE:
Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio

3339 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W

Washington, DC, 20008

Telephone: (202) 333-7121

Fax: (202) 337-4036
Pope Benedict XVI

00120 Via del Pellegrino

Citta del Vaticano, Europe

The Pope’s email address (for English correspondence) is:
'benedictxvi@vatican.va
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FAX from USA:

011-39-06698-85378
Congregation for Doctrine of Faith

Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11, 00193 Roma, Italy

Telephone: 06.69.88.33.57; 06.69.88.34.13

Fax: 06.69.88.34.09

Please send a cc of any message or petitions you send to:

Bill Quigley – Attorney for Fr. Roy

7214 St. Charles Avenue, Box 902

New Orleans, LA 70118 or
duprestars@yahoo.com
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HUMAN RIGHTS-USA/VATICAN CITY:

SOCIAL JUSTICE PRIEST THREATENED WITH EXCOMMUNICATION:

Molly has often reported on the activities of the School of the Americas Watch here at this blog. Basically this is a non-violent coalition which aims to close down the "torture school" in Fort Benning, Georgia where Latin American military officers are "trained" by their imperial masters in the fine arts of counter-insurgency ie where to apply the electrodes. One of the founders and leading lights of this movement, Father Roy Bourgeois has been threatened with excommunication by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. To those of you who didn't grow up Catholic (and to many Catholics as well) this curial congregation is better known by its other name- the Holy Inquisition. Fr. Bourgeois has run afoul of the Vatican bureaucracy for his support for the ordination of women to the priesthood. See the story below. The following is from the National Catholic Reporter in the USA.

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Roy Bourgeois threatened with excommunication :


Fr. Roy Bourgeois has been threatened with excommunication by the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for his support of women’s ordination, according to a letter made public today.

The letter was written by Bourgeois and addressed to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. It was distributed via e-mail by Bill Quigley, a New Orleans lawyer who represents Bourgeois.

According to Bourgeois’ letter, which is dated Nov. 7, the congregation has given him 30 days to recant his “belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or (he) will be excommunicated.”

The letter indicates that Bourgeois received notification from the congregation Oct. 21.
Bourgeois, a priest for 36 years, attended the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska in Lexingon, Ky., Aug. 9 and preached a homily.
If Bourgeois is excommunicated at the end of 30 days, it would come just before the mass rally and protest against the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga., that Bourgeois has organized for 19 years. In recent years, more than 15,000 people, many of them Catholic university students, have joined the three daylong rally and demonstration.

Bourgeois was not immediately available for comment. The text of Bourgeois’ letter follows.
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Rev. Roy Bourgeois, M.M.

PO Box 3330,

Columbus, GA

31903

November 7, 2008
TO THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, THE VATICAN
I was very saddened by your letter dated October 21, 2008, giving me 30 days to recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or I will be excommunicated.

I have been a Catholic priest for 36 years and have a deep love for my Church and ministry.
When I was a young man in the military, I felt God was calling me to the priesthood. I entered Maryknoll and was ordained in 1972.

Over the years I have met a number of women in our Church who, like me, feel called by God to the priesthood. You, our Church leaders at the Vatican, tell us that women cannot be ordained.

With all due respect, I believe our Catholic Church’s teaching on this issue is wrong and does not stand up to scrutiny. A 1976 report by the Pontifical Biblical Commission supports the research of Scripture scholars, canon lawyers and many faithful Catholics who have studied and pondered the Scriptures and have concluded that there is no justification in the Bible for excluding women from the priesthood.

As people of faith, we profess that the invitation to the ministry of priesthood comes from God. We profess that God is the Source of life and created men and women of equal stature and dignity. The current Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women implies our loving and all-powerful God, Creator of heaven and earth, somehow cannot empower a woman to be a priest.

Women in our Church are telling us that God is calling them to the priesthood. Who are we, as men, to say to women, “Our call is valid, but yours is not.” Who are we to tamper with God’s call?

Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard or how long we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always immoral.

Hundreds of Catholic churches in the U.S. are closing because of a shortage of priests. Yet there are hundreds of committed and prophetic women telling us that God is calling them to serve our Church as priests.

If we are to have a vibrant, healthy Church rooted in the teachings of our Savior, we need the faith, wisdom, experience, compassion and courage of women in the priesthood.

Conscience is very sacred. Conscience gives us a sense of right and wrong and urges us to do the right thing. Conscience is what compelled Franz Jagerstatter, a humble Austrian farmer, husband and father of four young children, to refuse to join Hitler’s army, which led to his execution. Conscience is what compelled Rosa Parks to say she could no longer sit in the back of the bus. Conscience is what compels women in our Church to say they cannot be silent and deny their call from God to the priesthood. Conscience is what compelled my dear mother and father, now 95, to always strive to do the right things as faithful Catholics raising four children. And after much prayer, reflection and discernment, it is my conscience that compels me to do the right thing. I cannot recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church.

Working and struggling for peace and justice are an integral part of our faith. For this reason, I speak out against the war in Iraq. And for the last eighteen years, I have been speaking out against the atrocities and suffering caused by the School of the Americas (SOA). Eight years ago, while in Rome for a conference on peace and justice, I was invited to speak about the SOA on Vatican Radio. During the interview, I stated that I could not address the injustice of the SOA and remain silent about injustice in my Church. I ended the interview by saying, “There will never be justice in the Catholic Church until women can be ordained.” I remain committed to this belief today.

Having an all male clergy implies that men are worthy to be Catholic priests, but women are not.

According to USA TODAY (Feb. 28, 2008) in the United States alone, nearly 5,000 Catholic priests have sexually abused more than 12,000 children. Many bishops, aware of the abuse, remained silent. These priests and bishops were not excommunicated. Yet the women in our Church who are called by God and are ordained to serve God’s people, and the priests and bishops who support them, are excommunicated.

Silence is the voice of complicity. Therefore, I call on all Catholics, fellow priests, bishops, Pope Benedict XVI and all Church leaders at the Vatican, to speak loudly on this grave injustice of excluding women from the priesthood.

Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated because of his defense of the oppressed. He said, “Let those who have a voice, speak out for the voiceless.”

Our loving God has given us a voice. Let us speak clearly and boldly and walk in solidarity as Jesus would, with the women in our Church who are being called by God to the priesthood.
In Peace and Justice,

Rev. Roy Bourgeois, M.M.

PO Box 3330,

Columbus, GA

31903