{"id":181,"date":"2008-12-16T16:12:24","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T16:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html"},"modified":"2008-12-16T16:12:24","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T16:12:24","slug":"us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html","title":{"rendered":"U.S. to Nuns to Vatican: We support Fr. Roy Bourgeois–and women’s ordination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Bourgeois has been excommunicated or not remains a mystery. As I wrote here<\/a>, the Vatican told him to recant for supporting women’s ordination–and attending one last July–and at last word he had gone to Rome to plead his cause<\/a>.
\nCatholic World News<\/a> and National Catholic Register<\/a> think it’s a done deal.
\nThe blowback certainly hasn’t died down, and today more than 100 nuns from 22 religious congregations released a letter to the Vatican protesting the threatened excommunication of Bourgeois. The letter was organized by the National Coalition of American Nuns (NCAN)<\/a>.
\nThe nuns’ statement said they “join Fr. Roy Bourgeois and the majority of U.S. Catholics, who believe that women are called to priestly ordination in the Catholic Church.” They “look forward to the day when Catholic women, following in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene, who announced the Resurrection to the male Apostles, will minister as full equals in our church.”
\n“In the first century, Christians resolved their disagreements about following traditions such as circumcision and kosher dietary laws by dialogue and discussion,” said Sister Beth Rindler, in other comments released by NCAN. “We need to follow their example by promoting public discussion about the ordination of women,” the Franciscan Sister said.
\n“We hope the excommunication is not issued,” added Dominican Sister Donna Quinn, one of the coordinators of NCAN. “The medieval punishment of excommunication serves only to embarrass our Church in the eyes of the world and fuels further anger and resentment among the U.S. faithful.”
\nRead the full text and list of signatories below…<\/p>\n


\nDecember 12, 2008
\nCardinal William Joseph Levada
\nCongregation for the Doctrine of Faith
\nPiazza del S. Uffizio 11
\n00193 Roma, Italy
\nDear Cardinal Levada:
\nThe Vatican’s threatened excommunication of Fr. Roy Bourgeois because of his belief in the priestly ordination of women has diminished our Church.
\nAs women religious who love our Church and who have served the People of God for decades, we support our brother Roy. As a Maryknoll priest for 36 years, he has followed the Gospel of Jesus in his ministry for peace and justice by speaking out against the war in Iraq and against the torture of countless human beings, aided and abetted by the U.S. government’s School of the Americas. He has been a prophetic voice for thousands in our society.
\nRoy is now a prophetic voice in our church because of his support for women’s equality in all Church ministries. Excommunications depend not on edicts or laws, but on compliance. We do not believe Roy is outside the community and we embrace him wholeheartedly. Like Roy, we know women who testify that they are called to priesthood. We know that Jesus did not discriminate in calling both women and men to ministry. And we know that our church needs the gifts of everyone called.
\nSo we join Fr. Roy Bourgeois and the majority of U.S. Catholics, who believe that women are called to priestly ordination in the Catholic Church. We look forward to the day when Catholic women, following in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene who announced the Resurrection to the male Apostles, will minister as full equals in our church.
\nSincerely,
\nJean Ackerman, OP
\nLouise Akers, SC
\nAlice Baker, IHM
\nBarbara Battista, SP
\nBarbara Beesley, IHM
\nMarlene Bertke, OSB
\nRuth Bockenstette, SC
\nMary A. Bodde, SC
\nMary E. Boesen, SL
\nMary Ellen Brody, RSM
\nJulie Brown, RSM
\nMary Peter Bruce, SL
\nJeri Cashman, OP
\nJoan Chicoine, IHM
\nJoan Chittister, OSB
\nBenita Coffey, OSB
\nCarol Coston, OP
\nMary Ann Coyle, SL
\nMary Ann Cunningham, SL
\nBeth Davies, CND
\nMarie Cyril Delisi, IHM
\nKathleen Desautels, SP
\nJo Ann Dold, OP
\nMaria S. Dowhaniuk, SFCC
\nSuzanne Dunn, SFCC
\nGwen Farry, BVM
\nMaureen Fenlon, OP
\nSheila Ferraz, SC
\nMaureen Fiedler, SL
\nMary Kay Finneran, SC
\nArlene Flaherty, OP
\nVictoria Marie Forde, SC
\nSusan Fortier, OSB
\nIvone Gebara, CND
\nRita Clare Gerardot, SP
\nMarian Gibbons, OP
\nJoan Glisky, IHM
\nPaula Gonzalez, SC
\nJeannine Gramick, SL
\nJoan Groff, SC
\nKatrinka Gunn, SC
\nPatricia A. Haire, CSJ
\nAnn Halloran, OP
\nDoris Hamerl, CSC
\nMary Harvey, RSM
\nEileen Haugh, OSF
\nJoan Henehan, CSJ
\nGrace A. Hogan, OP
\nMargaret Hughes, IHM
\nRuth Hunt, SC
\nMarion Irvine, OP
\nFlorence Izzo, SC
\nTherese Jilk, OSF
\nDeidre G. Jordy, SP
\nElizabeth Joyce, SP
\nTheresa Kane, RSM
\nConnie Kelly, SC
\nEsther Kennedy, OP
\nBetty Kenny, OSF
\nPamela S. Kobasic, IHM
\nKathy Komarek, OP
\nAnna Koop, SL
\nLinda Kors, CSC
\nJanet Kramer, SOSF
\nMarie LaBollita, SC
\nCita Lamb, SND
\nJean Ann Ledwell, OSU
\nJanet Lemon, IHM
\nRose Annette Liddell, SL
\nDenise Lonergan, SFCC
\nLystra Long, OP
\nMarian McAvoy, SL
\nAnne McCarthy, OSB
\nKathleen McClelland, RSM
\nBridget Mary Meehan, SFCC
\nVirginia Miller, SP
\nMary M. Miner, RSM
\nKate Moriarty, RSM
\nMaureen Murray, RSHM
\nPatricia Nagle, IHM
\nBetty Olley, OP
\nMichele Olley, OP
\nMadonna Oswald, IHM
\nPatricia Otillio, RSM
\nElizabeth Pardo, IHM
\nClaudine Picard, RSM
\nKatharine Pinto, SC
\nHelen Marie Plourde, SSND
\nMarie-Anne Quenneville, OSU
\nMeg Quinlan, RSM
\nDonna Quinn, OP
\nSusan Rakoczy IHM
\nDiane Rapozo, BVM
\nMarie Regine Redig, SSND
\nRoberta Richmond, IHM
\nCarol L. Ries, SNJM
\nMarie Romejko, SND
\nDolores Russo, SCH
\nChristine Seghetti, RSM
\nGerry Sellman, SCMM
\nAnn Shaw, CSC
\nMaureen Sinnott, OSF
\nJulie Slowik, IHM
\nRita Specht, RSM
\nFlorence Speth, SC
\nMary Sugrue, SC
\nLenore Sullivan, IBVM
\nMaureen Tobin, OSB
\nSusan Vickers, RSM
\nJacquie Wetherholt, CSJ
\nRebecca White, OSU
\nAlice Zachmann, SSND
\nJoanne Marie Zavadsky, SSND<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Bourgeois has been excommunicated or not remains a mystery. As I wrote here, the Vatican told him to recant for supporting women’s ordination–and attending one last July–and at last word he had gone to Rome to plead his cause. Catholic World News and National Catholic Register think it’s a done…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,6,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bishops","category-catholic","category-church","category-history","category-pope"],"yoast_head":"\nU.S. to Nuns to Vatican: We support Fr. Roy Bourgeois-and women's ordination - Pontifications<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. to Nuns to Vatican: We support Fr. Roy Bourgeois-and women's ordination - Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whether Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Bourgeois has been excommunicated or not remains a mystery. As I wrote here, the Vatican told him to recant for supporting women’s ordination–and attending one last July–and at last word he had gone to Rome to plead his cause. Catholic World News and National Catholic Register think it’s a done…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-16T16:12:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Gibson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"U.S. to Nuns to Vatican: We support Fr. Roy Bourgeois-and women's ordination - Pontifications","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"U.S. to Nuns to Vatican: We support Fr. Roy Bourgeois-and women's ordination - Pontifications","og_description":"Whether Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Bourgeois has been excommunicated or not remains a mystery. As I wrote here, the Vatican told him to recant for supporting women’s ordination–and attending one last July–and at last word he had gone to Rome to plead his cause. Catholic World News and National Catholic Register think it’s a done…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html","og_site_name":"Pontifications","article_published_time":"2008-12-16T16:12:24+00:00","author":"David Gibson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html","name":"U.S. to Nuns to Vatican: We support Fr. Roy Bourgeois-and women's ordination - Pontifications","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-16T16:12:24+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-16T16:12:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/us-to-nuns-to-vatican-we-suppo.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"U.S. to Nuns to Vatican: We support Fr. Roy Bourgeois–and women’s ordination"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/","name":"Pontifications","description":"Catholic Faith and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71","name":"David Gibson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","caption":"David Gibson"},"description":"DAVID GIBSON is an award-winning religion journalist, author, filmmaker, and a convert to Catholicism. He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s. Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name \"Karol Wojtyla,\" and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism. Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a \"powerful\" and \"first-rate\" treatment of the crisis from \"an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber.\" His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as \"an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book\" from \"a master storyeller.\" Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/author\/dgibson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}