Father Roy Bourgeois's Defrocking: More Good Commentary

More good commentary on the story of Father Roy Bourgeois and his dismissal from the priesthood because he supports women's ordination, about which I blogged yesterday:

At her Enlightened Catholicism blog, Colleen Baker sees a strong parallel between the story of Lennon Cihak, a youngster denied communion in Barnesville, Minnesota, when he wouldn't publicly renounce his support for marriage equality, and the story of Roy Bourgeois--as with Cihak's case, so with Bourgeois's, church officials demand that people violate their consciences by lying in order to access the sacraments or church office.

Colleen writes,

Being advised to lie to maintain or receive sacraments is not terribly sacred nor does it seem very Catholic, but lying is becoming routine in the upper echelons so maybe it is some new form of Catholic truth.

At her Perspective site, Crystal Watson observes,

Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a brave and committed peace activist for 40 years, has been laicized, excommunicated, and expelled from his order - I'm amazed they didn't try to burn him at the stake as well. Meanwhile, Bishop Finn, convicted of covering up the sex abuse of children, gets not even a reprimand from the church. 

For U.S. Catholic, Bryan Cones writes,

I'm left disappointed that we cannot have an adult theological conversation about the matter of women's ordination or at least sexism as it exists in the church. But I can't help but wonder what will happen if the day comes, some decades or centuries away, when a future pope reopens the discussion that John Paul II closed in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. It seems unlikely to me that 100 years from now the conversation will still be where it is today, and a significant number of theologians have argued that the late pope's determination that the church has no authority to ordain women is reversible.

And at his site, Contemplative Catholic asks why the men in Rome are so afraid:

The Dismissal of Fr Roy Bourgeois - yet another heavy handed manouvre by a church authority becoming more insecure by the day - what are they frightened of?

Excellent commentary which reminds me that there have been and will always be periods in the history of the church when the people of God remember Jesus and the gospels in a way that preserves the core affirmations and values of Catholic faith, while the hierarchy betrays those affirmations and values.