Roy Bourgeois

Infobox Person
name=Roy Bourgeois


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birth_date=1938
birth_place=Lutcher, Louisiana
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nationality=U.S.
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known_for=SOA Watch
education=University of Southwestern Louisiana
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occupation=Catholic priest
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religion=Roman Catholic
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Reverend Father Roy Bourgeois, M.M. is an American priest in the Maryknoll order of the Roman Catholic Church and founder of the human rights group SOA Watch. [ [http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=413 "SOA Watch: Biography of Roy Bourgeois"] , SOA Watch Website.]

Early life

Bourgeois was born in Lutcher, Louisiana in 1938. He attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in geology.

After graduation, Bourgeois entered the United States Navy and served as an officer for four years. He spent two years at sea, one year at a station in Europe, and one year in Vietnam. He received the Purple Heart during a tour of duty in Vietnam.

After military service, he entered the seminary of the Maryknoll Missionary Order. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1972 and sent to Bolivia.

Activism

1972-1975Fr. Roy spent five years in Bolivia aiding the poor, before being arrested and deported for speaking out against Bolivian dictator General Hugo Banzer, an SOA graduate.

1980Fr. Roy became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America after four American churchwomen, Sister Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Sister Ita Ford, and Sister Dorothy Kazel, were raped and killed by a death squad consisting of soldiers from the Salvadoran National Guard.

1990Fr. Roy founded the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch), an organization that seeks to close the School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001, through nonviolent protest.

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

2008Despite the Vatican position declaring all attempts to ordain women as invalid [ [http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3P.HTM "Code of Canon Law, Can. 1024"] ] , Fr. Roy concelebrated and delivered the homily at the ordination ceremony of Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a Roman Catholic woman.Coday, Dennis. [http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/1568 "Sixth Catholic woman priest ordained this year"] , "National Catholic Reporter", 2008-08-09. Retrieved on 2008-08-11.] A report has been sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome. In the meantime, Fr. Bourgeois has received a canonical warning.Roberts, Tom. [http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/1650 "Maryknoll's Bourgeois calls meeting with order 'productive'"] , "National Catholic Reporter", 2008-08-19. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.]

Awards

*Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award (1997)
*Thomas Merton Award (2005)

ee also

*Charlie Liteky
*Brian Willson
*Liberation theology
*School of the Americas Watch

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.soaw.org/ School of the Americas Watch]
* [http://www.resistersbook.org/ From Warriors to Resisters: U.S. Veterans on Terrorism]