Roy Bourgeois

Roy Bourgeois (born January 27, 1938 in Lutcher , Louisiana , USA ) is a former Roman Catholic priest , peace activist , founder of the " School of the Americas Watch" organization and recipient of the Aachen Peace Prize .

Life

Bourgeois studied geology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana , now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette . Between 1963 and 1967 he served as a naval officer in the Vietnam War and was awarded the Purple Heart award for wounded . After his military service he joined the Maryknoll Missionary Order . In 1972 he was ordained a priest and served in the mission in Bolivia . Because of his involvement against the regime of the then ruler General Hugo Banzer , a graduate of the School of the Americas , he was arrested and expelled in 1977.

After four missionaries (including two of his fellow Maryknoll sisters) were raped and subsequently murdered by death squads of the Salvadoran National Guard in 1980 , he became a sharp critic of US foreign policy in Latin America . In 1990 he founded the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch), the aim of which was to close the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001 ). The SOA Watch tries to achieve this goal through peaceful protest. Because of his commitment, Bourgeois has spent a total of four years in US prisons since 1980.

In 1998 Bourgeois testified before a Spanish judge, which helped the Chilean ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet extradited to his country so that he could be tried.

Bourgeois advocates the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. In a letter from the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of October 21, 2008, he was threatened with excommunication if he did not revoke his convictions within 30 days. In an open letter dated November 7, 2008, Bourgeois explained why he was unable to do this. In 2012 the Vatican released ( laicized ) from the priesthood , excommunicated and excluded from his order Maryknoll .

Awards

Purple heart
Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award (1997)
Aachen Peace Prize (2005)
Thomas Merton Award (2005)
Bourgeois was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 .

literature

James Hodge, Linda Cooper: Disturbing the Peace. The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York 2004, ISBN 1570754349 .

Web links

Commons : Roy Bourgeois - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

School of the Americas Watch

Individual evidence

^ Keith Fournier: Fr. Roy Bourgeois Publicly Rejects the Magisterium; Excommunication Looms . Catholic Online Web site , November 14, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
^ Kath.net: Roy Bourgeois
^ WG Peace Research: Aachen Peace Prize 2005 goes to Roy Bourgeois and Hanne Hiob . Website of the University of Kassel , 2005. Retrieved on December 21, 2010.

personal data
SURNAME	Bourgeois, Roy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Roman Catholic priest, peace activist, founder of the School of the Americas Watch
DATE OF BIRTH	January 27, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lutcher

[1] Keith Fournier: Fr. Roy Bourgeois Publicly Rejects the Magisterium; Excommunication Looms . Catholic Online Web site , November 14, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2010.

[2] Kath.net: Roy Bourgeois

[3] WG Peace Research: Aachen Peace Prize 2005 goes to Roy Bourgeois and Hanne Hiob . Website of the University of Kassel , 2005. Retrieved on December 21, 2010.