March 25, 2013
“My Prayer: Let Women Be Priests”
In an opinion piece for the New York Times, 74-year old Roy Bourgeois writes that after having served for four decades as a priest of the Maryknoll Order, his Order received a disturbing letter from the Vatican. Father Bourgeois was told he was being expelled from the priesthood because he had publicly advocated for the ordination of women. Father Bourgeois says, ““Who are we, as men, to say that our call from God is authentic, but God’s call to women is not? Isn’t our all-powerful God, who created the cosmos, capable of empowering a woman to be a priest? Let’s face it. The problem is not with God, but with an all-male clerical culture that views women as lesser than men.” His observation can apply to attitudes within much of Protestantism as well.