Maryknoll spokeswoman Betsey Guest says she believes Fr. Roy Bourgeois has been excommunicated although there has been no official communication from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.Guest told the National Catholic Register's Tom Hoopes that Maryknoll believes Bourgeois has been excommunicated despite no official communication from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
"We believe that he has been excommunicated. This was done by the CDF, not by us," she said.
"There has been no direct communication from the CDF regarding that. [But] because he was given 30 days to recant his actions, and he had responded saying that he could not recant those actions, he has been excommunicated at the end of that" period of time."
She said she had no idea about the usual process, but reiterated that Maryknoll leaders "have not received any formal notification to that effect and are in fact awaiting a response from the CDF to Fr. Bourgeois's letter sent Nov. 13."
"He's still a member [of Maryknoll], but possibly open to possible further penalty. We don't know whether that will take place or not. We have not had official word."
"He is still a Catholic." Many people misunderstand what excommunication means, she said. "He is just prohibited from receiving or administering the sacraments."
Asked if the order regrets the stance Fr. Bourgeois took on women's ordination, she said they are "very saddened".
"The fathers and brothers are very saddened by the course of the events that have taken. He's been a member of the family for 63 years. They give him their love and pastoral response."
Bourgeois lives outside Fort Benning, Ga. The School of the Americas Watch is his ministry. Peace and Justice work is his ministry. He speaks around the country on many issues of peace.
Guest says it remains to be seen how this will affect that work.
"This is all so new."
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