The 69-year-old priest said his letter was in response to an Oct. 21 notice from the Vatican congregation, headed by Cardinal William J. Levada, an American, that gave him 30 days to recant his belief and public statements about the ordination of women or be excommunicated.
Think about Galileo standing in the dock of the Inquisition, forced to recant his belief that the Earth moves around the sun.
The inquisitor agrees: "Would we have had to arrest him otherwise?" Galileo is obliged to recant his belief that the sun is at the centre of the universe and the Earth moves around it.
The great astronomer was old and blind and under house arrest, confined by order of the Inquisition, which had forced him to recant his belief that the earth revolves around the sun, as formulated in his "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems".
The spectacle of the aging astronomer being forced, under the threat of torture, to recant his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun has seemed to many to mark the moment when the Age of Faith gave way to the Age of Reason and to embody the Catholic Church's enduring hostility to unfettered inquiry and expression.
I cannot recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church.
According to Bourgeois' letter, which is dated Nov. 7, the congregation has given him 30 days to recant his "belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or (he) will be excommunicated".
I was very saddened by your letter dated October 21 , 2008 giving me 30 days to recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or I will be excommunicated.
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Despite being threatened with excommunication by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois said he would not recant his belief that women should be ordained as Catholic priests.
No witness ever recanted a prior statement or grand jury testimony.
One recanted a story about the time she wore a leather miniskirt to an interview.
