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Life on the edge

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Photo By Photo submitted Rev. Roy Bourgeois attended the Aug. 9 ordination of womanpriest Janice Sevre-Duszynska in Lexington.

Last month a Roman Catholic priest for 36 years " the Rev. Roy Bourgeois of the Maryknoll, N.Y. community " attended the ordination of womanpriest Janice Sevre-Duszynska and preached the homily in Lexington. Sevre-Duszynska, a peace activist from Jessamine County and former high school teacher, is the sixth womanpriest ordained this year and the 32nd since the movement began in North America two years ago. Sevre-Duszynska's ordination in Lexington was the first time a male Roman Catholic priest in good standing with the church publicly joined the ceremony. In his homily, Bourgeois said, "Conscience is what compels Janice Sevre-Duszynska and the other women to say, "No, we cannot deny our call from God to the priesthood.' And it is our conscience that compels us to be here today. How can we speak out against the injustice of our country's foreign policy in Latin America and Iraq if we are silent about the injustice of our church here at home?" Several Frankfort residents who met Sevre-Duszynska at a peace rally in the Capitol rotunda a few years ago were among the 150 attending her ordination at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Just before the Labor Day weekend Sevre-Duszynska was interviewed at her home by Staff Writer Charlie Pearl. A bumper sticker on her car says, "Ordain Catholic Women or Stop Baptizing Them." Another one on a front door to her house says, "You're waiting for a sign from God? This is it. Ordain Women."
What kind of process did you have to go through to become a womanpriest?
I had an interview with two of the women bishops and I had to write my statement why I wanted to become a priest, and give background information and so forth. When I was accepted into the program I had to curb some of my activism so I could do the pastoral training, a wonderful program, very attuned to relationships with people and the holy and the sacred. We went through each of the sacraments and you get a good understanding, a good foundation, as well as from my background in theology from Lexington Theological Seminary. I also took an Old Testament class at the University of Notre Dame and decided to work on a doctor of ministry through the online Global Ministries University.
Since you were a child, you've always wanted to be a Roman Catholic priest?
Yes, that's true.
What is it that keeps you wanting to be a Roman Catholic?
The Gospel foundation. Jesus was a radical egalitarian who revealed to us a God of compassion, a gracious God and a justice-making God. I'm a cradle Catholic. I've always respected and admired our social justice teachings and the people who work for the common good. These are my heroes as priests and nuns, the people who went to Latin America during the 1960s and '70s. They were working for the common good and trying to leave the world a better place, recognizing that we're all as human beings on an equal playing field. Jesus wasn't about exploitation. That's the part of the church I cherish as well as the mystics like Francis and Claire. I see our movement in Catholic womanpriests as renewing the church, bringing it back to the gospel values of empowering others of meaning and justice and affirming nonviolence.
So why not just become a minister or leader of another Christian church that would welcome you?
I've had several offers over the years actually and it's part of our obligation as Catholics actually to live by our conscience. And that means to challenge our church and to help renew it. I see Jesus as creating a discipleship with equals and so we're calling the church back to its early beginnings.
Will the Roman Catholic Church survive another half century without major changes?
Roman Catholic womenpriests are working to renew the church, to return it to the gospel values, to the discipleship of equals, to live up to the Christian vision in the Gospels. Jesus was a person who empowered others, liberated others, who gave you a sense of freedom " from whatever the parameters culturally, socially, religiously that you were suffering from. What we're doing in Roman Catholic womenpriests is restoring the church, we're rebuilding the church. We're restoring it to the Gospel vision, what Jesus called it to be, not Canon Law, which discriminates against women and other people.
Do you want this Roman Catholic womenpriest movement to be become the new Catholic Church of America and the world?
We'd like to see it embraced by the rest of the church. We're not a parallel of the church. We have valid ordinations, we're going forward with renewing the church and we have lots of people who are accepting us.
Do you feel many former Catholics no longer practice their faith because they feel the church is out of touch with the times?
I do. Look at our families. Our nieces and nephews and children, and lots of men and women in their 30s and 40s and younger have left the church because, first of all, it doesn't recognize women's spiritual authority, women's spiritual leadership. One thing about the Roman Catholic womanpriests is we want feminine images of God, we want women on the altar imaging the sacred, and we want the Gospel interpreted from women's lived experiences, which have a lot to do with practicalities of everyday life.
According to a National Catholic Reporter article, the Vatican condemns ordinations of women. It says "people directly involved in an attempted ordination of a woman excommunicate themselves automatically." Do you feel you have excommunicated yourself?
No. I don't believe one can excommunicate him or herself unless one really chooses to put one's self out of the church. I do not choose that. My ordination is valid. It's valid in the eyes of the community and it's valid in the eyes of God.
What community?
My interfaith community and many Catholics. We have lots of Catholics at Mass.
In 2001 you served a 90-day sentence in a federal prison in Lexington for participating in a nonviolent protest at the School of the Americas. Briefly, what is the School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation?
It's a school at Fort Benning, Ga., that has trained Latin American officers in torture techniques and harassment and other means of controlling people so they do what the government wants. They have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people and the disappearances of thousands of people. These Latin American officers go back to their countries and it's like they have the approval of the U.S. You can do what you want when you want because we're supporting you and they've caused lots of suffering and chaos for people.
What were you charged with?
Trespassing. We were singing a beautiful Latin chant which means where true love and charity are found there is God. So we had to go through all this bureaucracy for crossing over a line because we care enough about our government to challenge it and say we don't want our hard earned taxpayers' money " $22 million a year " going for this one military site to be spent to train these officers and to cause suffering in another country.
What was the most frightening part about being an inmate in a federal prison?
Seeing the long sentences these other women, most of whom are nonviolent, have to serve. I did not encounter a violent woman in the prison. However, many of these women came from various kinds of abuse. What frightened me is that we in this third millennium are still putting people away for months and years instead of rehabilitating them in their communities with their children and families. Rehabilitating them " teaching them how to parent, and care for and educate themselves " would cost maybe $7,000 a year. When I was in prison in 2002 it cost $28,000 to keep an inmate in the federal prison, and yet most of the people were nonviolent. Prison is a dehumanizing experience and that is not a way to teach people to heal and to make their lives better.
How did you spend your days in prison?
I had to make sure I challenged the system in a gentle way. I lobbied all the counselors as soon as I got there, and the warden, saying, "Make use of me.' I said I don't mind working in the kitchen but I could help the women who want to work on their reading, their language, their writing. So after half of my time there the warden allowed me to work with them and teach them. So I made use of my skills. Being in prison was transformational for me.
Before going to prison, you were a teacher?
Yes, at Henry Clay High School in Lexington. I taught English as a second language to children from all over the world. That was a gift because I had lost my younger son (in a vehicle crash 18 years ago) and then divorced. I learned from their stories, from different places of violence in the world. When I lost my teaching job the community came out and supported me and learned about the School of the Americas. It was a great educational experience for the community. When I made the decision to cross the line I was willing to lose my job. But I also felt I needed to turn things around, to say, "Wait a minute, I didn't kill anybody. I didn't hurt anybody. I crossed the line singing a gentle, loving song and I'm challenging my government to something I think is wrong.' Why can't I return to my teaching job just as people in the Army get to go and come as a teacher? I was able to return to teaching.
So you were reinstated as a teacher?
Yes, I was reinstated and I taught for a couple more years and then decided to retire so I could indeed pursue my priesthood on the street, which is what I found is the kind of priest I am.
What will be your main duties as a womanpriest?
I will be celebrating Mass and in the Mass I will be interpreting the Gospel from my woman-lived experiences, which I think is very important. I also will be also celebrating the sacraments and I will be on the street, which is where I believe our bishops need to be. It's not a matter of just making statements. Their bodies have to be where their mouths are and that means at the East Senate Office Building in Washington. Why are bishops not vigilant day and night to end the war? That's what I'll be doing. I will be proclaiming a nonviolent Jesus. To me being a priest means living your life on the edge. Otherwise don't step up to the plate. And to me it means challenging the government. Jesus was nonviolent and yet our Christian church does not always come out against the violence and to me if you're going to be a bishop or a priest you need to be out there on the streets speaking out for those who are exploited, those who are suffering and those that our country's policies are causing harm to, including our own children.