Excommunication looms for American Maryknoll active in 'Womanpriest' rites

November 12, 2008

An American Maryknoll priests reports that he has been given 30 days to revoke his public support for the ordination of women or face excommunication. Father Roy Bourgeois, who has joined "Womanpriest" activists in attempting the ordination of women as priests, has told the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he will not recant.

In May, a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was published in L'Osservatore Romano, warned: "Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incurs excommunication latae sententiae." Father Bourgeois claims that the current Vatican threat of formal excommunication is a response to his public statements of support for the ordination of women, rather than his participation in the illicit ceremonies.

The Vatican's warning to Bourgeois, with the 30-day notice, is dated October 21.

 

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Further information:

• Roy Bourgeois threatened with excommunication (National Catholic Reporter)
• Vatican might expel activist priest (Times-Picayune)
• Maryknoll priest faces disciplinary action over role in Womenpriests’ ceremony (CWN, Sept. 18)
• Maryknoll priest involved in woman’s ‘ordination’ receives canonical warning, does not recant (CWN, Sept. 20)