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U.S. priest facing ouster to appeal

ALBANY: An American priest facing excommunication for supporting the ordination of women said he plans to visit the Vatican with a contingent of fellow priests and a bishop to appeal the decision.

Father Roy Bourgeois, 69, a peace activist, ran afoul of Vatican doctrine by participating in an August 9 ceremony in Kentucky to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Recent Popes have said the Roman Catholic Church cannot ordain women because Christ chose only males as apostles.

“Who are we as men to say to women that our call to the priesthood is valid, but yours is not?” Father Bourgeois asked. “As Catholics we profess that the invitation to priesthood comes from God, and I believe that we are hampering with the sacred when we say that women must be excluded from being priests. That invitation is from God.”

Father Bourgeois said the toughest part of the ordeal was informing his 95-year-old father, a devout Roman Catholic. He said he drove to his family’s home in Lutcher, Louisiana, near New Orleans, to tell him, and that his father shed tears and then told his family that God had protected him before, and would continue to today. “When he said God will take care of him, I wept,” said Father Bourgeois.

Father Bourgeois’ excommunication likely would be automatic, requiring no further action from the Holy See, said chief Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi. Excommunication is the most severe penalty under Church law; it will cut off a Catholic from receiving or administering sacraments.

Father Bourgeois said that he recently received a letter from the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, offering him a chance to recant within 30 days to avoid excommunication. — AP

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