Laicization of a priest.

This week Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest, a Vietnam veteran and a well-known peace activist, was notified by his superiors in the Maryknoll order that he must withdraw his views on the ordination of women as priests and cease all involvement in, support of this cause. If not he would be reduced to the lay state and excommunicated from the Church. He would cease to be a priest and no longer  allowed to celebrate the Eucharist. This was an order that had come down from Rome.

 Without mentioning that Pope Benedict XVI has written that man's conscience is the final arbitrer of the morality of his action, superior even to directives from the Pope, and that one is bound to obey it, this was the order. When he was ordained
the bishop said "Thou art a prierst forever" but now this sacramental commission was to be withdrawn.

Now I happen to disagree with Fr. Bourgeois on a number of issues, including the unauthorized rites of ordination of "women priests", but I have always believed in his sinceriety in holding these views and I equally believe in the right of every Christian to challenge the comfort level of many traditional believers, who are happy to be the flock shepherded by the dictates of the hierarchy and of Rome. God gave us intelligence to guide our decisions; He gave us a Church to enunciate the principles on which our decisions are based, not to do our thinking for us.

There have been no infallible pronouncements regarding the ordination of women as priests or deacons. Recent (i.e. within the last century) popes have expressed their personal opposition to the idea, but they were not speaking ex cathedra, infallibly on the issue. While they may claim more authority and credibility than Fr. Roy, he is not denying a basic doctrine defined by the magisterium of the Church.

At most this is a disciplinary issue, not a doctrinal one. The authority given to Peter was to serve the Church, not to rule it. Christ left no blueprint for a structure of discipline and administration in the community He founded  and He sent the Holy Spirit to teach, not to rule. Faith not slavish or servile obedience is the touchstone of salvation.