NATIONAL COALITION OF AMERICAN NUNS

FOUNDED TO STUDY AND SPEAK OUT ON ISSUES OF JUSTICE

IN CHURCH AND SOCIETY

April 8, 2011

Nuns Support Fr. Bourgeois

The National Coalition of American Nuns is deeply astonished by the threatened expulsion of Fr. Roy Bourgeois from his community by its leaders because of his belief in the priestly ordination of women. 

 

Since its inception 100 years ago, the Maryknoll Community of Fathers and Brothers has respected the rights and consciences of the indigenous people it served. In the past, the community gave witness to a spirit of brotherhood when some of its members were not in favor with ecclesiastical authorities. For example, they stood by their brother Miguel D’Escoto when the Vatican stripped him of his priestly faculties for his participation in the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980’s.

 

We ask Fr. Edward Dougherty, Superior General of the Maryknoll Brothers and Fathers, and his leadership team, to dialogue with the appropriate Vatican agencies to lift the excommunication from Fr. Roy Bourgeois, just as the Oblates of Mary Immaculate did for their brother, Fr. Tissa Balasuria. Fr. Balasuria was excommunicated for his statements on revelation, Christology, and Mariology--doctrines considered more central to our faith than the ordination of women. If the Oblates were willing to negotiate a reversal of Fr. Balasuria’s excommunication in 1998, surely the Maryknoll Community can do no less in supporting its own members.

 

We ask the entire Maryknoll community--Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, and Lay Missioners--to speak up for one of their own. It is disheartening to hear the silence from within Maryknoll, especially when a substantial portion of its membership agrees that the ordained priesthood should be open to women. The lack of public support for Fr. Roy Bourgeois from Maryknoll members tarnishes the reputation of the entire Maryknoll family.

 

We ask all Catholics to contact Maryknoll members to beg them to speak up for their brother, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, for the right of individuals to express their own consciences, and for the baptismal rights of women to ordained ministry in our Church.

 

Founded in 1969, the National Coalition of American Nuns represents approximately 500 women religious in the United States.

 

NCAN BOARD MEMBERS

Barbara Beesley IHM

Mary Ann Coyle SL

Mary Ann Cunningham SL

Jeannine Gramick SL

     Executive Coordinator

Anna Koop SL

Michelle Olley OP

Grace Pleiman SFP

Donna Quinn OP

     Executive Coordinator

Beth Rindler SFP

     Executive Coordinator

Gerry Sellmann SCMM

Maureen Sinnott OSF

Sallie Ann Watkins SFCC

Jacquie Wetherholt CSJ

Consultants

Eileen Purcell

Peggy Thompson,

     IHM Associate

National Office

Beth Rindler SFP

12434 Klinger St.

Detroit, MI 48212

313-891-2192

bethrin@prodigy.net