Conscience in Conflict with the Church:
The Case of Fr. Roy Bourgeois
After an opening prayer, the group discussed the Bourgeois controversy as reported in the National Catholic Reporter, and shared reflections on Fr. Bourgeois and his work as a Maryknoll priest over the past 18 years organizing the annual protest at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. The School of the Americas, since renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, has been a center for the U.S. Army training of military officers from numerous Latin American countries. It is alleged that this course of training has included counter-insurgency training and the use of torture techniques. Each year, several thousand protesters have gathered outside the gates of Fort Benning in late November to protest the training program, and to reiterate calls for the closing of the training center. Fr. Bourgeois has been a catalyst for this annual demonstration. Over the past several years, representatives from St. Ignatius parish have traveled to Georgia to participate in the demonstrations. The current controversy involving Fr. Bourgeois is not directly related to these annual demonstrations, except insofar as Fr. Bourgeois has demonstrated himself to be a tireless advocate for justice and peace over the course of nearly two decades.
The immediate cause of the current controversy was Fr. Bourgeois’ decision to participate in an ordination ceremony held in August for Janice Sevre-Duszynska, who according to NCR was “the sixth U.S. woman ordained this year as a part of the roman Catholic Womenpriests movement” and is “a longtime peace activist who was once arrested for performing civil disobedience at Fort Benning, and a longtime proponent of women’s ordination” (NCR, 11.28.08, p. 10). According to reports, Fr. Bourgeois participated in the liturgy that accompanied the ordination ceremony, and preached a homily. Bourgeois was notified on Oct. 21 that he had 30 days in which to recant his position in support of the ordination of women or be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
Fr. Bourgeois Responds to the Threat of Excommunication
The VOTF NY group began the discussion by reading the complete text of Fr. Bourgeois’ letter of response to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, as follows:
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
Blog Entry by James Martin, S.J.
The group also noted a recent blog post dated Nov. 15 by James Martin, S.J., an associate editor of America magazine and a noted Catholic author (My Lives of the Saints). Fr. Martin analyzed the various canon law regulations pertaining to Bourgeois’ actions.
Fr. Roy Bourgeois, MM, the Maryknoll priest who has been threatened with excommunication for his participation at an ordination rite for women, will travel to the Vatican to appeal his decision, AP is reporting, "with a contingent of fellow priests and a bishop." Despite earlier reports, Fr. Frederico Lombardi, SJ, the Vatican spokesman, said that he did not know of the existence of a letter to Lombardi detailing the sanction. Lombardi noted that the excommunication would be "automatic," in other words, a "latae sententiae" excommunication, effective when the offense is committed. (The person, in a sense, excommunicates himself or herself.)
The canon applied in this case has not been announced. It may be Canon 1364, which includes the "latae sententiae" excommunication: "§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. "
Another canon that may apply is this 1365: "One who is guilty of prohibited participation in religious rites is to be punished with a just penalty." However, this only indicates a "just penalty." Excommunication, which forbids the reception of the sacraments (or, for the priest, their celebration) is the church's ultimate penalty against its members.
Fr. Bourgeois, a dedicated apostle of social justice, and champion of the poor, has offered the church a valuable ministry in his tireless work against the School of the Americas. Ironically, within days of the announcement of the Vatican censure, news came that the case against the soldiers, who murdered six Jesuits and their companions in El Salvador in 1989, might be brought before a court in Spain. (That court would try those accused of crimes against humanity.) Those soldiers were trained at the School of the Americas. In other words, the justice for which Fr. Bourgeois and his friends had fought seems within reach. The timing is notable.
Fr. Bourgeois was following his conscience, he said, in his participation at the ordination rite, though it was clearly against the church's teaching on women's ordination. In its document "Dignitatis Humanae," the Second Vatican Council wrote, "On his part, man perceives and acknowledges the imperatives of the divine law through the mediation of conscience. In all his activity a man is bound to follow his conscience in order that he may come to God, the end and purpose of life. It follows that he is not to be forced to act in manner contrary to his conscience. Nor, on the other hand, is he to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience, especially in matters religious." The Catechism of the Catholic church, quoting from Vatican II's "Gaudium et Spes," notes, "Conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths" (1795).
At the same time, Fr. Bourgeois must have known what the response from the church would entail: it is very clearly spelled out in canon law. (All priests by the way take courses in canon law as part of their training.) By participating in that rite--particularly in the laying on of hands, one of the main symbols of ordination in the Catholic church--that was contrary to church teaching about women's ordination, Fr. Bourgeois must have known that his actions would have some serious consequences.
Fr. Bourgeois is impelled to follow his conscience; the Vatican is impelled to enforce canon law. The collision course was inevitable.
One reflection: The ordination rite in which Fr. Bourgeois participated occurred in August. That means that within three months, the excommunication had been communicated from the Vatican to Fr. Bourgeois. In the eyes of the Vatican, his actions represented a grave offense that required swift action and a severe penalty.
Would that the church had acted with equal swiftness against sexually abusive priests. Would that bishops who had moved abusive priests from parish to parish were met with the same severity of justice.
Were their offenses of lesser "gravity"? Did they cause lesser "scandal"?
http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=A0EB46C8-1321-AEAA-D3AD45EB48BD2597
VOTF’s Response to the Vatican Threat of Excommunication
VOTF National had objected to the threat with a strongly worded statement in a letter to the Vatican authorities. Read the VOTF press release.
Group Discussion
The group proceeded to discuss a variety of topics related to the Vatican threat:
-- What do we mean by “conscience?”
#1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:
• The formation of our conscience
#1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.
#1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt, and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults. The education of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.
#1785 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, 54 we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.
#1790 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
The Great Silencing:
How We As a Church Handle Disagreement
Submitted by Francis Pierdit
The group agreed that women’s ordination was not a matter of doctrine, but an organizational issue. The group discussed the important roles played by women when Jesus was among us, and the important roles of women in the early Church. Many participants were also familiar with the work done by Sr. Chris Schenk of Future Church in promoting the presence and participation of women observers at the recent Synod held in Rome, which focused on Scripture. In light of this discussion, many participants felt that the threat of excommunication against Fr. Bourgeois was an extreme over-reaction by the Vatican against a challenge to its authority, and that no individual should be expelled from the Church for disagreement with hierarchical positions on Church life and custom, as opposed to doctrinal matters of faith and belief.
The group also discussed the increasingly aggressive attempts by the Vatican to silence discussion of controversial topics, including such recent examples as:
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The forced resignation of Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. as editor in chief of America magazine in 2004, an event that was protested by VOTF through the gathering of a petition with more than 4,000 signatures that was sent to Rome.
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The silencing of theologians, sometimes with the threat of excommunication, including
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Charles Curran
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Leonardo Buff
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Hans Kung
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The treatment of the Erie Benedictines (Order of Saint Benedict)
The group expanded the discussion to include the role played by a small but vocal minority of American bishops in the 2008 U.S. Election, during which they publicly stated that Catholics cannot vote from Barack Obama because of his position on abortion.
The discussion eventually turned to other issues on which the Church hierarchy attempts to enforce discipline by silencing discussion, including mandated celibacy, the rights of gays and lesbians, gay clergy, and of course, the ordination of women. On each issue, the group saw aggressive attempts on the part of the Church hierarchy to
Shut down discussion and debate by dictate. The group also concluded that to a large degree this effort has been effective. There are very few priests, including priests belonging to religious orders, who will openly preach on these sensitive topics. There are very few discussions in Catholic parishes today on these sensitive topics.
The Role of Voice of the Faithful: Conclusions and Next Steps
At the conclusion of the evening’s discussion, the group had arrived at a number of clear conclusions. No single speaker had presented these thoughts. Rather, the collective wisdom and reflection of the group had driven the discussion and debate to these end points:
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We are increasingly called to stand and speak our consciences, just as Fr. Roy Bourgeois is doing. We should support him, and we must prepare ourselves to do likewise. On issue after issue, including the treatment of women in the Church, and the treatment of gays and lesbians, we must be prepared to stand as individuals and speak clearly on issues of justice, if our consciences so dictate. We will very likely be criticized and ostracized for such testimony, but we cannot avoid it. Our Church has shut down the discussion for many years, but the bishops cannot shut it down forever. Events and issues are coming to a boil, and we must prepare ourselves for hard truths and hard times.
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VOTF has in the past attempted to avoid the controversial issue of women’s ordination. The more we discussed the issue as framed by Fr. Bourgeois, an issue of justice and conscience, the more we as a group felt that such avoidance is increasingly untenable. As one participant expressed it, avoiding the issue “may be prudent, but it is certainly not prophetic.” In fact, we began to believe that the issue of women’s ordination could become the catalytic issue that will engage the broader laity in our work.
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In the face of the “great silencing,” VOTF’s proper role is not to pretend to have all the answers. If we think we have all the answers, we merely replicate the hierarchy’s behavior. The hierarchy shouts down discussion because the bishops believe they have all the answers. The conservative wing of the Church shouts down discussion and debate because they believe that the Church already embodies all the answers. We believe that no one has all the answers facing our Church today. It is only through discussion, debate and communal discernment that we can reach the truth on complex contemporary issues. Only through our collective wisdom and discernment can we determine the way forward. So even though everyone tells us to shut up, we have an obligation to speak up, not because we know what to do, but because we are ready to ask the questions that must be asked. And we know that it is only through the collective wisdom of the Christian community, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that we can find the truth.
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As an affiliate, we will support Fr. Roy Bourgeois’ conscience-shaped stand through a public statement of support accompanied by letters to the editor, to be issued now and when the official order of excommunication is issued.
