22 Facts About Roy Bourgeois

Roy Bourgeois was born on January 27,1938 and is an American activist, a former Catholic priest, and the founder of the human rights group School of the Americas Watch.

Roy Bourgeois is the 1994 recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award and the 2011 recipient of the American Peace Award and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Roy Bourgeois was born in Lutcher, Louisiana on January 27,1938.

Roy Bourgeois grew up in a Catholic working-class family, and attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in geology.

Roy Bourgeois spent two years at sea, one year at a station in Europe, and two tours of duty during one year in Vietnam, during the first of which he was injured during fighting in Saigon and received the Purple Heart.

From 1972 to 1975, Roy Bourgeois began the work of his priesthood in La Paz, Bolivia aiding the poor.

Roy Bourgeois was eventually deported from Bolivia and returned to the United States.

In 1980, Roy Bourgeois moved to a Catholic Worker house in Chicago where he continued his work with the poor.

In 1990, Roy Bourgeois founded the School of the Americas Watch, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to close the SOA and to change US foreign policy in Latin America by educating the public, lobbying Congress and participating in creative, nonviolent resistance such as demonstrations and nonviolent protest.

In 1998, Roy Bourgeois testified before a Spanish judge seeking the extradition of Chile's ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

In 2011, Roy Bourgeois was briefly detained by police at the Vatican on October 17, when he tried to deliver a petition to the Holy See with a number of women priests, who were dressed in their liturgical garments.

In 2012, Roy Bourgeois was part of a panel discussion at the New York premiere of the documentary Pink Smoke Over the Vatican.

Roy Bourgeois has spent over four years in federal prisons for nonviolent protests, including entering Fort Benning.

Roy Bourgeois was a celebrant in, and delivered the homily during the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska under the auspices of the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which rejects the Church's teaching on the all-male priesthood.

The ceremony was not recognized by the Vatican; and its May 2008 declaration meant that Roy Bourgeois was excommunicated latae sententiae.

Roy Bourgeois received a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which explained what the letter called his "errors" along with "a genuine concern for his salvation".

Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer acting on Roy Bourgeois' behalf, asked for discussions and negotiatations on the matter with the Maryknoll Society and, through it, the Holy See.

At no time, during any of it, did Roy Bourgeois recant his position on women's ordination to the priesthood.

Roy Bourgeois responded in a letter dated April 8,2011, stating that he could not recant without betraying his conscience.

On Monday, November 19,2012, the Maryknoll Society's Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers issued an official statement indicating that the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had ruled, on October 4,2012, that Roy Bourgeois had been canonically dismissed from both the Maryknolls, and the Roman Catholic priesthood, thereby laicizing him.

Mr Roy Bourgeois freely chose his views and actions, and all the members of the Maryknoll Society are saddened at the failure of reconciliation.

Roy Bourgeois has asked for solitude and prayers during this time of transition.