"When we get the blessing from family and loved ones, it does bring some peace. At the same time, it saddens me to put them through this," he said.
For now, Father Bourgeois will continue to prepare for the Nov. 21-23 vigil and procession to the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, the home of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the army school he has been trying to close for nearly two decades.
He also said he may try to arrange a meeting with congregation officials with the help of his superiors in New York and in Rome to discuss the issue.
Father’s blessing brings peace to Roy Bourgeois
By THOMAS ROBERTS Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Published:
November 17, 2008
In his own words, Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois has "poked at a lot of hornets nests" along the way from soldier in Vietnam to committed pacifist and persistent critic of U.S. military policy. He's poked at the presumptions of major institutions and systems, including, most recently, standing in opposition to the Catholic church's ban on ordaining women.
But for all of the heat he's taken, for all of the scary episodes that come with bucking the status quo, one of the most emotionally wrenching moments of his life occurred just days ago in the living room of his childhood home.
There he stood, with his sisters, Ann and Janet, and his brother, Dan. They had read his response to the Vatican's threat of excommunication if he did not recant his position supporting women's ordination. In it he had said he could no more rescind his position on ordination of women than he could recant his opposition to the training of foreign troops at what was once called the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga., or his opposition to the war in Iraq.
So they all knew that his 36-year career as a priest was probably nearing an end, that after 36 years of service, work among the poor and against military violence, he would be ostracized, no longer considered a part of the church community.
They waited now to hear what 95-year-old Roy Sr., devout Catholic and daily Mass attendee, would say about this latest in a long history of controversies involving his son.
"My siblings were afraid this would break his heart. My sister Ann was the first to ask him, 'Daddy, how do you feel about this?' " Bourgeois recalled in a Nov. 17 phone interview. "My dad cried. He's a soft-hearted guy. But then he got his composure and said: 'God brought Roy back from the war in Vietnam. God took care of Roy in his mission work in Bolivia and El Salvador, and God is going to take care of Roy now.' Then he said, 'Roy is doing the right thing by following his conscience, and I support him.' "
They all wept, said Bourgeois. It was curious, he said, because all of them had worried that the news would be terribly upsetting to his father. "But then this person of great inner strength looked at us and said, 'God will look after the family, too.' "
Bourgeois, who faces almost certain excommunication, was the founder of an annual protest outside the gates of Fort Benning and what once was called the School of the Americas. This year's protest will be held Nov. 21-23. The school's name was changed in recent years to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
As the School of the Americas, the facility trained scores of Latin American military who can be traced to committing or overseeing some of the most horrendous human rights abuses in modern Latin American history. Troops engaged in assassinations, disappearances, torture and massacres of hundreds of thousands throughout the region. Some of the most heinous crimes occurred in El Salvador and Guatemala during periods of civil war there in the latter part of the 20th century.
Bourgeois is known primarily for his campaign against the School of the Americas and opposition to the war in Iraq as well as his advocacy of the story of Franz Jagerstatter, the Austrian farmer who was executed for refusing induction into the German military during World War II.
