Roy Bourgeois

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Roy Bourgeois (born 27 January 1938 in Louisiana) is an American activist. He was ordained a priest in the Maryknoll order of the Roman Catholic Church and is founder of the human rights group SOA Watch or the School of the Americas Watch.^[1]

Father Bourgeois was excommunicated latae sententiae for his participation in a women's ordination ceremony in August 2008.^[2][3]

Early life

Bourgeois was born in Lutcher, Louisiana. He grew up in a conservative working class family, and attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in geology.

After graduation, Bourgeois entered the United States Navy and served as an officer for four years. He spent two years at sea, one year at a station in Europe, and one year in Vietnam. He received the Purple Heart during a tour of duty in Vietnam, however he later returned it.

After military service, he entered the seminary of the Catholic missionary order of Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers (Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America). He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1972 and sent to Bolivia.

Activism

1972-1975 Fr. Bourgeois spent five years in La Paz, Bolivia aiding the poor before being arrested and deported for attempting to overthrow Bolivian dictator General Hugo Banzer.

1980 Father Bourgeois moved to a Catholic Worker house in Chicago where he continued his work with the poor. Fr. Bourgeois became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America after four American churchwomen, Sister Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Sister Ita Ford, and Sister Dorothy Kazel, were raped and killed by a death squad consisting of soldiers from the Salvadoran National Guard, some of whom had been trained at the School of the Americas.

1990 Fr. Bourgeois founded the School of the Americas Watch or (SOA Watch), an organization that seeks to close the School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001, through nonviolent protest.

1998 Fr. Bourgeois testified before a Spanish judge seeking the extradition of Chile's ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

2008 In August 2008, Fr. Bourgeois participated in and delivered the homily at the ordination ceremony of Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of Womenpriests, at a Unitarian Universalist church in Lexington, Kentucky.^[4] Fr. Bourgeois received a 30 days' notice as of October 21, 2008 regarding possible excommunication for this action. He was excommunicated latae sententiae.^[4]

Fr. Roy Bourgeois has spent over four years in Federal prison for peacefully crossing into Fort Benning. He and over 240 peace activists have been tried and jailed for peacefully demonstrating at the gates of the WHINSEC, or School of the Assassins as it's referred to by the activists.^[5]

2011 He was briefly detained by police at the Vatican on 17 October when he tried to deliver a petition to the Holy See with a number of women priests, who were dressed in their liturgical garments.

Expulsion

On March 18, 2011, Fr. Bourgeois was given a letter from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers notifying him that he had 15 days to recant his support for women's ordination or he would face expulsion from the Order.^[6] 157 Catholic priests signed a letter that supports his priesthood and his right to conscience. This was delivered on 22 July to the Superior General, Fr. Edward Dougherty.

Following his refusal to recant, the Order issued a second Canonical Warning, or final notice of pending removal from the Maryknoll Order, on 27 July. Maryknoll reviewed his response to this letter. In March 2012, the Order's general council, which consists of its Superior General and three assistant generals, came to a split decision over Bourgeois' removal and the outcome has yet to be announced. ^[7]

The Vatican is considering his formal removal from the priesthood. Father Bourgeois said he had hired Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer, to represent him at the Vatican. He has also said he wants to plead his case directly to Pope Benedict XVI.

Awards

• Gandhi Peace Award (1994)
• Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award (1997)
• Thomas Merton Award (2005)

Notes and references

Further reading

• Hodge, James; Linda Cooper (2004). Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of Americas. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 1-57075-434-9. 

External links

• School of the Americas Watch
• Catholic Action Network
• From Warriors to Resisters: U.S. Veterans on Terrorism
• Hulu: Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins
• Catholic Online: Defiant Fr Roy Bourgeois Dismissed from Maryknolls. Soon from the Priesthood?