Days before his expulsion from both his order and the Roman Catholic
priesthood for ordaining women, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois sat in chilly
spring sunshine staring at the White House, contemplating what life will
be like after he's defrocked.
He was hungry - the result of a
weeklong fast as part of his perennial protest against the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in Fort Benning, Ga.
The
institute, formerly known as the School of the Americas, trains police
and military forces from Latin America.
Opponents say the school's
graduates return to their home countries and use those skills to torture
citizens.
He was wistful.
After all, Bourgeois' 38-year
career as a member of the missionary Maryknoll order has meant spending
time in such countries as Bolivia and El Salvador, preaching the gospel
and speaking out against the rape and torture of those nations'
citizens.
Bourgeois, 73, a resident of Columbus, Ga., helped lead the
first protest at the school following the 1980 assassination in El
Salvador of Archbishop Oscar Romero and four churchwomen, acts Bourgeois
links to training at the School of the Americas.
Those protests began with 20 people and have grown to thousands.
He was at peace.
It's been a long time coming for the native of a
small, predominately Catholic Louisiana parish who went on to serve in
Vietnam and has spent nearly every year since he returned fighting
policies he sees as oppressive.
In August 2008, in Lexington, Ky., he
participated in a ceremony to "ordain" a Catholic woman, Janice
Sevre-Duszynska, and was subsequently excommunicated from the Roman
Catholic Church after he didn't recant.
"What happened with
my works with the School of the Americas movement, speaking out against
injustice, I discovered this injustice much closer to home in the
Catholic Church, women who are saying they are being called by God to
preach," Bourgeois said.
"I really had to reflect on what they were
saying. What I discovered was grave injustice against women, our church
and our God who calls women to be priests. I broke my silence to go
public."
The Army considers the Fort Benning school as a
valuable asset in its ability to help build partnerships with other
nations, contribute to peace and stability and ensure the Defense
Department will not have to expend additional resources in the region on
peacekeeping efforts.
"We challenge them to see what we
actually do. We're proud of it," said Lee Rials, the school's spokesman.
"The training we teach starts with democracy and human rights matters.
The longest course is the same one taught at Fort Leavenworth (Kan.) to
army majors and is taught in Spanish."
On
Thursday, Bourgeois and other human rights activists gathered in front
of the White House to protest both the planned Colombia Free Trade
Agreement and the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
On Wednesday, the White House announced that U.S. and Colombian
negotiators had reached agreement on protections for labor unions, and
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was scheduled to meet with
President Barack Obama at the White House.
On Friday, a group
of Catholic protesters were expected to gather outside the Vatican
embassy in support of Bourgeois, who will publicly respond to Maryknoll
leadership by stating that he cannot, in good conscience, recant his
support for women's ordination.
He must have publicly recanted his support for
women's ordination by Saturday.
After that, he got another warning as
a formality, then be defrocked.
On Sunday, Bourgeois was to be
joined by hundreds of human rights activists from around the world in a
march to the White House calling for an executive order from Obama to
close the Fort Benning school.
"I was tortured by the
Colombia military. Colombia is the biggest user of the school, and it is
no coincidence that it is the biggest abuser of the school," said
protester Hector Aristizabal.
"Obama has promised a great deal in the
field of human rights, but unfortunately he has continued the same
policy as the Bush administration. There are all of these
contradictions, and I haven't seen a great deal of change in foreign
policy."
As for Bourgeois, amid the flurry of geopolitical and theological debate, he finds himself feeling quite centered.
"Maybe it took me this long to be a priest. This is what we should
be doing," he said of fighting what he considers injustice.
"I actually,
because of what I'm going through, feel like I'm getting closer to God.
When we face a crisis, we have to go within to find that peace. I find
my spiritual life is growing and I'm growing closer to God."