What We Need in a Pope-Gender Justice-Roy Bourgeois + others/Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-pope-qualities-20130303,0,7041221,full.story

 

Gender justice
By Roy Bourgeois
"The Catholic Church teaches that the call to be a priest comes from God. It also says that only men can be priests. The question I've been asking my fellow Catholics — and would ask the next pope — is this: How can a woman's call to priesthood — which is directly from God — be wrong? In failing to ordain women, the church is guilty of sexism, which is impossible to justify in a faith that preaches that a loving God creates everyone of equal worth. Historically the church's leaders, looking to keep themselves — all men — in power, have said that while all people are created equal, women's roles are separate. This argument for barring women priests reminds me of my childhood in Louisiana. I attended segregated schools and worshiped in a Catholic Church that reserved the last five pews for blacks. In my anger at the injustice being done to women, I am still filled with hope that women will be ordained, just as those segregated schools in Louisiana are now integrated."
Roy Bourgeois was a Catholic priest with the Maryknoll Order for 40 years. He was dismissed from the priesthood in late 2012 after he refused to renounce his participation in an ordination ceremony for a female priest.