Catholic priest who approves of women in the church will be defrocked

barneyjo - I hafta say that there's no absolutism in human people's lives. Even St Paul recognised that and I know my own faults enough to know so too. But Jesus was absolute and His teachings remain absolute for the purity required before His Father. I fail miserably every day at trying to be clean and pure, and because I know that one day in my life I will not see the next day. Each day I say “I confess to Almighty God that I have sinned... and I ask all the angels and saints to pray to God for me”. What a wimp am I.

There is a danger in adopting an "absolute" position such as that proposed by jacersagain. Such a position is inherently wrong in my view for a number of reasons. 1) It presumes that the will and intent of Christ Jesul in relation to the faithful is "absolute" and fixed. It presumes that as a divinity, that the mind or intent of christ cannot and does not change. That is incorrect, as scripture points to instances where Jesus plainly did so. One such occasion being the Wedding at Cana where despite his own protestations to his mother "woman my time is not yet come" he acceeded to her entreatments when she advised her son "they have no wine" So there is a danger and peril for anyone who claims to know the absolute mind of christ!!

I think Fr. Bourgeois might be one of the priests of the liberal theology movement that first grew out of South America and we all know how the Roman Church came down heavily on that for quite justifiable reasons. I cannot but agree with Gearoid4’s explanation for the reasons why, in Roman and Eastern Churches, the original Christian Churches, even today only males are ordained to priesthood. >> I visited St. Mary Magdalene’s tomb in Sth France a few years ago and learned much of her work as a missionary in converting the locals to Christianity as traditionally held by the people of the area. She had great success in doing so and Mary's name is sacrosanct to the people around Marseille and environs to this day. But she was never a priestess of Christ, never consecrated Bread and Wine into the Body & Blood of Christ; the only Sacrament she dispensed was that of Baptism. She received Holy Communion from her friend, Bishop Maxime, and from the Angels of God during her 30 years as a cave hermit in the mountains of Sainte Baume. >> I respectfully suggest that Fr. Bourgeois, avec son nomine Francais, might well do well to visit MM’s tomb, to see and pray before her skull and know how even she knew her role was never to be that of a priest. All are called to spread Christ’s message but only men were ordained by Christ to “Do this in Memory of Me” and so it must remain, as Pope John Paul II painfully had to declare his own and the Church’s powerlessness in this matter.

Hypocrital.

Defrocked for approving women in the church maybe yes, if he doesn't recant. To father a child where recanting is an impossibillity and ask for a release from vows with dignity? No. What do I think? It's hypocrit

Who among us can truly claim to know the mind of Christ. Add that to the fact that even the Son of God can be pursuaded to change his mind!!

Well, Ellen about half of the twelve who were called up were fishermen. Matthew was a tax collector and Simon was a 'zealot' or a radical activist of his time. But the topic of their previous jobs is a distraction from my main points. These were that Jesus chose all men for his apostolate and this has been preserved in the Western and Eastern churches down to the present day. As the Catholic/Orthodox priesthood is built around the person of Jesus Christ, it follows that those being ordained will be of the male sex to stand in his place as it were. Western Society will view this as outrank discrimination against women. But men and women play complementary but different roles and in this case this informs the Catholic view on priesthood which ultimately follows the mind of Christ.

That's " you don't see many of those in Rome now, do you?"

@gearold4, Christ also"restricted" his selection of apostles to Aramaic speaking, married, fishermen and other ordinary people. You don't many of those in Rome now, do you?

when you run out of priests they will. contract out to africa asia and latin america. they are already doing this in the usa. and you end up with some priests that have a completely different culture than you and some incredibly strange ideas

@eiriamach, I think that you are mistaken on this one. The Catholic and Orthodox churches who comprised the church universal before the great schism of 1054 would beg to differ. It is their common understanding that Jesus restricted the priesthood through his selection of men only for his apostles. The Catholic Church through the document 'Ordinatio Sacerdotalis' authored by the soon-to-be Blessed Pope John Paul 11 reiterated the teaching that the Church had no authority to ordain women into the priesthood. This is no slight on women but merely underlining the differentiation of sexual roles as the priestly office is focused on Christ as it's primary model. Women are highly honored by the Church. This can be seen from the examples of such great saints as Therese of Lisieux or Theresa of Avila who have been declared Doctors of the Church. Mary the Mother of God is venerated on a level higher than the saints.

Gearoid4 is mistaken: there is no doctrine or theological consensus on the ordination of women, and women served equally with men in the early church. As Fr. Bourgeois points out, Christ ordained no one, and certainly never imprinted male gender on any priesthood. There are no theological arguments and no sources in revelation that support a male-only priesthood.

pmunited is right. Also, these severe and public reprimands amount to cyber-bullying of women and feminist advocates by the bishops and by Fr. Bourgeois' superiors. This slap-down of the Maryknoll priest and the banning of Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson's book "Quest for the Living God" by the USCCB (the bishops' 21-page "Statement" on her book is available on the 'net) will have a chilling effect on theologians and theology teachers and students. The bishops' critique offers patent self-contradictions. They work a simplistic, fundamentalist notion of metaphor to reject her book as not in "accord with authentic Catholic teaching." They seem determined to control and limit even the images in which we speak about God and the words we use to speak to God! The bishops made their ban on the book public before Sr. Johnson even knew they were investigating her work. The direct attack on Fr. Bourgeois is an indirect but clear attack on the contributions of women to Christian life. I guess the hierarchy has decided that the church would be better without women. This is news, sadly, only because it represents the death throes of a once-great institution that has survived through millennia, and that now needs openness and inclusiveness but has closed itself off from sources of renewal.

Good old IC never misses a bar when it comes to trawling newswire sites for the latest piece of controversy to hit the Catholic church. Then it puts it's own spin on the story to make it as negative as possible. The controversy surrounding Bourgeois has been presented in sociological terms i.e discrimination against women rather than theological i.e only men can be ordained as Christ appointed only men to be his apostolic successors. The priest is male also as he stands in the place of Christ after he is ordained. Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches base their arguments solely on theology and tradition and are not swayed by contemporary sociological arguments.

It is crazy to think that in the 21st century that these beliefs are controversial. Women should be ordained. Look at any parish and you will see that women are the backbone. There are many potential great women priests out there. I think we would had a lot less of the clerical abuse if there were more women in roles. Since most priests are now in their 60s, the church will need to do something soon or there will no priests of any gender.