Maryknoll

Fathers and Brothers • Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, Inc. 

PO Box 305 • Maryknoll, New York 10545-0305 

Phone: (914) 941-7590 

Rev. Roy L. Bourgeois, M.M. 

P.O. Box 3330 

Columbus, GA 31903 

First Canonical Warning 

Dear Father Bourgeois, 

Since the September 27, 2006 letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was received we have been in communication with you via letter, and at least two meetings where you were ordered to recant your public views on the ordination of women priests and clearly told not to participate in their meetings and public events. You were Excommunicated Latae Senteniae reserved to the Apostolic See because after a canonical warning by the Society in 2008 you failed to recant within the stated 30 days from contumacy and disregard for the Magisterium of the Church on the matter of women's ordination (ct. 1347 CIC).        

According to our documentation, you continued to speak publicly in favor of women's ordination in disobedience to the explicit instructions of your Superiors and recently participated (Feb. 12, 2011) in a panel of speakers following the showing of the film "Pink Smoke over the Vatican" at Barnard College in New York City. 

Sufficient time has now passed for you to consider the gravity of the matter. You are hereby asked one final time by the Superior General and his Council to publicly recant and accept the teaching of the Church on this serious matter concerning priestly ordination and the explicit teaching of the Church.    : 

Having heard the advice of my Council, the Maryknoll Bishops' Advisory Board, and consultations with the Holy See, I now hereby declare that you will be dismissed from the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers) unless you publicly recant your views on the ordination of women and agree  to obey your legitimate Superiors. 

If you fail to comply within fifteen (15) days of receipt of this first canonical warning, I will issue a second canonical warning. If you fail to respond to the second canonical warning, I will proceed with dismissal by submitting evidence of your contumacy as a priest who publically rejects the teaching of the Holy Father (C. 1371), also a priest who acted illegitimately in “communicatio in sacris” –such as participation in an invalid ordination ceremony of a woman (C. 1384). “Concelebrating” Mass with women analogous to simulation of the Eucharist (C. 1379), giving scandal to the Christian faithful in a serious matter over a two-year period (C. 1399) and Disobedience to the instructions and warnings of your legitimate Superiors and the Apostolic See (C. 601; MK Const. 40). The dismissal will be submitted to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for confirmation with a request for laicization.

The Reasons for the Dismissal: In Accordance with Canon 696.1

1.For obstinate disobedience of your legitimate Superiors in violation of Canon Law and your Oath to the Society and the Magisterium of the Church in a grave matter. 

2.Grave scandal given to the people of God, the Church, especially in the United States, and many of the Maryknoll Priests and Brothers. 

3.Diffusion of teachings opposed to the definitive teaching of John Paul II and the Magisterium of the Church. (Cf. C. 1024; Ordinatio Sacerdotalis N.4 1994, AAS87 -1995-,1114) 

You have a right under law to self-defense, including a canonical counsel in this matter at all stages. You have a right to present to me, in person at in writing, your defense against this first canonical warning and proposed dismissal within fifteen (15) days of receipt of this warning. 

Please be advised of the seriousness of this matter. 

(signed)

Rev. Edward M. Dougherty, M.M.

Superior General 

(signed)

Rev. Edwin J. McGovern, M.M.

Secretary General