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Why the Catholic Church expelled me w/Roy Bourgeois | The Chris Hedges Report — Transcript

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0:01now you talk about Terror
0:04[Music]
0:07what about for me
0:10[Music]
0:12I've been terrorized
0:16all my days
0:21having all my day
0:23[Music]
0:34when one makes a commitment to become a
0:36Christian he or she if they are serious
0:38are required to lift up and bear the
0:40cross
0:41this is not a rhetorical faint if you
0:44take this call seriously it means a life
0:46In Perpetual opposition to power
0:48including the institution of the church
0:50itself and a commitment to always stand
0:53with those the Theologian James Cohn
0:56called the crucified of the Earth
0:58it is a hard and lonely road one that
1:01will see you if you truly stand with the
1:03oppressed soon treated like the
1:05oppressed
1:06Roy Bourgeois takes this call seriously
1:09he has paid the Price born in a small
1:12Cajun Town along the Mississippi River
1:14in Louisiana he played football in high
1:17school and after graduating from the
1:19University of Louisiana joined the Navy
1:21eventually ending up in Vietnam as a
1:23lieutenant where he would be wounded
1:25Vietnam he writes became a turning point
1:28in his life
1:29he worked in his off hours with a
1:31Catholic priest and two nuns who ran an
1:33orphanage seen in their work compassion
1:36and love that was in stark contrast to
1:39the violence and death of War he went to
1:41Seminary and became a priest he worked
1:44in the slums in Bolivia during the U.S
1:47backed military dictatorship of General
1:49Hugo Bonzer he decided he could not be
1:52an apolitical priest only sane mass and
1:55baptizing babies he spoke out against
1:58the political repression leading to his
2:01arrest and expulsion from Bolivia this
2:04was just the start
2:05he organized protests outside Fort
2:08Benning Georgia where the U.S was
2:10training Salvadoran soldiers to fight
2:12the leftist Insurgency he illegally
2:15entered the base to broadcast a taped
2:17message by the assassinated Salvadoran
2:20Archbishop Oscar Romero calling on
2:23Salvadoran soldiers to stop the
2:24repression an act that saw him sentenced
2:27to 18 months in prison in 1990 he
2:31entered the base again sprinkling his
2:33own blood along the blood of other
2:35protesters including Medal of Honor
2:38winner Charlie litke Over photographs of
2:41six Jesuit priests their housekeeper and
2:44daughter murdered by U.S backed death
2:46squads in El Salvador he went to prison
2:49for another 16 months
2:51he defied the Catholic hierarchy by
2:54actively supporting the ordination of
2:56women and for this act of Justice he was
2:59expelled in 2012 from the priesthood
3:02joining me to discuss his remarkable
3:04life of resistance and his steadfast
3:07fealty to the Christian call is Roy
3:10Bourgeois author of male Supremacy in
3:13the Catholic church and insiders view so
3:17Roy I want to begin
3:19uh early on in the book where you don't
3:22talk about it in detail but I'd like you
3:24to explain it you are in a I believe a
3:27Barracks or somewhere you're attacked I
3:29think there are eight people who are
3:31killed you yourself are wounded can you
3:35tell us what happened yes I I was
3:38transferred to the space thinking it was
3:41your Saigon I would be safe there but
3:43then I learned there was no safe place
3:45to be in Vietnam
3:47and one night actually it was about four
3:50o'clock in the morning we were attacked
3:53and um
3:55we just had to take cover we were
3:56trained to do that just in case this
3:59would happen
4:00and it was totally my surprise and I
4:03regret to say that
4:05some friends of the lost you were number
4:08killed many wounded I was very fortunate
4:11I was among the wounded and um
4:15but it really that experience causes one
4:19to really reflect
4:21and I began to realize how fortunate I
4:24was to I remember then just months later
4:26my year in Vietnam had ended my tour I
4:29was four years in the military
4:31as a young lieutenant
4:33and I was going home and as that plane
4:37left
4:38uh Saigon returning
4:41plain Lord of us to return him back home
4:44many of us wept we were alive we lost
4:47some friends there and we were just
4:50grateful to be alive it was a new
4:52beginning it was a new beginning
4:54so as you know my father was a
4:56presbyterian Minister he served in World
4:58War II what was interesting about
5:01him and his generation is that so many
5:04of the other uh ministers uh
5:07in his around him came out of the
5:11experience of war and entered the church
5:13because of their experience in war and
5:17I'm wondering if uh Vietnam served that
5:20same role for you it was a turning point
5:23in my life I mean I volunteered to go to
5:26Vietnam I didn't have to go I was two
5:28years aboard chip after I became a young
5:31officer I went to Greece at a NATO
5:35station for a year and then when they
5:36were asking for volunteers I I believe
5:39they were conscious leaders I was
5:40certainly also
5:42um very conservative traditional
5:44catholic many Bishops like Cardinal
5:46Spellman they were calling for
5:50um saying that the the the cause was
5:52Noble that that it was a noble thing to
5:55go there to stop the spread of Communism
5:58I believe them and I went
6:00and I later learned especially after
6:03that experience there in needing for the
6:06livier caring for all these children a
6:09few hundred children
6:11um I would go there with my buddies to
6:13try and help them with food and
6:16medicines but I began to see the war for
6:19the first time to the eyes of the
6:20victims
6:21and this priest had a big influence on
6:24my life I'd never met someone like him
6:26he was a Healer
6:28um he was really
6:30um in a sense I was learning for the
6:32first time the meaning of that word
6:34solidarity solidarity and um I talked to
6:38an army Chapman my fourth year was
6:40coming to an end I expected to make the
6:42military a career but that would that
6:44change now I wanted to become a
6:47missionary priest like for the Olivier
6:49and be a Healer in our world a
6:51peacemaker
6:52and I came home and later joined the
6:55marional missionary order
6:58and I just felt it again once again it
7:01was a new beginning I was alive and when
7:04I entered the Seminary I must say my
7:06life had a lot of meaning I felt joy and
7:09hope once again
7:11there was a line in your book that I
7:13thought was important uh you're at the
7:15orphanage you're volunteering your off
7:17hours uh with this Catholic priest and
7:19the nuns and you say that he wasn't
7:21trying to convert anyone to Catholicism
7:23most of these people were Buddhists uh
7:27and I thought that was really an
7:28important point it's about bearing
7:31witness I want you just to expound upon
7:33that yeah I was just very moved because
7:35to be very honest I was never that while
7:38I grew up a traditional catholic in in
7:40Louisiana and we were taught never to
7:43question the church's teachings and but
7:47this priest was the first priest I ever
7:49got to know and what really inspired me
7:52was that he was just filled with
7:55compassion for the children who were
7:58being care so many of their parents
7:59these were orphans their parents had
8:01been killed by our bombs in napalm and
8:05um our bullets and he was a Healer he
8:08stood out he was from Canada and had
8:10been in Vietnam for years he'd gone
8:13there as a young missionary priest
8:15and one thing that inspired me too he
8:18was not trying to convert to these
8:20children who came from Buddhist families
8:23he wanted to uh just to try and get them
8:27um to be healed many of them were sick
8:30wounded by our bombs again and
8:34um he stood out and I thought really I
8:37no longer wanted to spend my career in
8:40the military I started thinking of being
8:42a missionary priest like this priest and
8:45I talked to an army chaplain
8:47about doing that and he recommended the
8:49Marinol missionary order headquartered
8:52in New York Crossing New York with
8:55missions in Asia Africa and Latin
8:57America
8:58and I remember I just felt wow this this
9:01is what I want to do and I returned home
9:04again feeling
9:07some New Hope joy and it was again once
9:10again A New Beginning I was alive let's
9:13talk about Seminary because when you
9:15entered Seminary 40 plus years ago the
9:19Austin Marinol no longer I think has a
9:22seminary vocations have fallen uh you
9:26know dramatically this will get to the
9:29whole point of your book in many ways uh
9:32but let's uh juxtapose what it was like
9:35in the seminary in terms of vocations in
9:38terms of the strength of the church and
9:39what's happened today I mean that was
9:41way back in 1966 when I entered the
9:44Marino Community I went to their
9:45seminary in Glen Ellen Illinois outside
9:48of Chicago at that time there were over
9:51300 seminarians
9:54um they had over a thousand priests
9:56working in Asia Africa Latin America
9:58well that has all changed you know I
10:01mean today today fast forward
10:05um there's only 16 seminarians only four
10:08in the United States uh the Seminary has
10:12since closed
10:14um they're down to 250 priests
10:18um the majority more than half of the
10:21250 or over 70 years old in short
10:24Marinol is on life support and Mike
10:28Marino is just a microcosm of what's
10:30going on in the bigger Church the
10:32Catholic Church once again I think
10:35because it became clear but not not in
10:37the Seminary when I went to the Seminary
10:39we didn't question the all-meal
10:42priesthood
10:44um we didn't have a problem with women
10:47but something happened to us over the
10:50next six years as I look back on that
10:52experience
10:53uh little by little being put on a pesto
10:56pedestal we were told that we were
10:58special called my God and what we could
11:00do women could not do we were the chosen
11:04ones to be leaders in the faith
11:07community and
11:09um
11:10it's again little by little we become
11:14addicted to I could see that as I look
11:16back addicted to power and how we began
11:19to see women as a threat to our power
11:23and very privileged lifestyle and that
11:26addiction to power only accelerates
11:29really uh when we become ordained and
11:34we're treated different and it took me
11:36years actually in the Seminary we didn't
11:39really have anyone calling for the
11:41automation of women but then it was
11:44years later that I began to meet very
11:46devout Catholic women in my Ministry and
11:50as a priest I must say I was very happy
11:52I found the meaning and the joy and the
11:54hope I was seeking in life and went
11:57about my Ministry and got a lot of
11:58support from the Marinol Community my
12:01fellow priests working on this issue of
12:03the school of the Americas military
12:06U.S military
12:08involvement in Latin America and what
12:12how we were causing a lot of suffering
12:14and death and when we started the school
12:16of the Americans watch protesting going
12:18to prison I among the many
12:21my fellow priests supported me they came
12:24to our vigils at Fort Benning to protest
12:27but something happened when I began to
12:29meet
12:30Catholic women in my Ministry uh talking
12:34about this Injustice of U.S foreign
12:36policy in Latin America I discovered an
12:40injustice uh closer to home it was in my
12:43church the Catholic church I began to
12:46meet the Valk Catholic women who said to
12:49me they were they were called like I was
12:51to the priesthood and what I heard from
12:55these devout women many of them in the
12:57movement I was a part of the school of
12:59the Americas watch it kept me awake at
13:02night I began to ask basic questions you
13:05know
13:06who are we as men
13:08to say that I will call
13:11the priesthood is authentic but the call
13:14of women is not
13:16doesn't Galatians
13:18328 the Holy Scripture said very clearly
13:22is not complicated uh it says very
13:25clearly that
13:27um
13:28that men and women are created of equal
13:30worth and dignity they are one they are
13:33one men and women are one and both are
13:36called of course to the priesthood and I
13:39started to ask my fellow priests to why
13:42can't women be ordained
13:44and I remember I thought I would get a
13:47better response but I began I
13:49underestimated let me put it this way I
13:51underestimated the depth the depth of
13:54the sexism in the misogyny uh in the
13:59church
14:00and in in my in the priesthood I was
14:03quite surprised at the the resistance
14:06and the anger I got when I started
14:09asking my fellow priests why can't women
14:11be priests as we are called their two
14:14are called
14:15and that was only the beginning of my
14:18being expelled from the priesthood uh
14:20you eventually take part in an uh kind
14:23of ad hoc ordination service for women
14:26uh and this leads to your expulsion you
14:29write in the book The Crisis in the
14:30Catholic church is not complicated if
14:33the patriarchy that dominates the church
14:35is not dismantled and women are not
14:37treated as equals the church will
14:40continue to diminish and eventually die
14:43that's what I begin to see it became
14:46very clear that we were in trouble the
14:49Marino missionary order was but a
14:51microcosm of the the larger Roman
14:55Catholic Church
14:57it's in a crisis and at the core of that
15:00crisis is the old male priesthood at the
15:05very core is male Supremacy and how men
15:09how we somehow we were not that way when
15:12we entered the Seminary
15:15um
15:16something happened to us
15:18and of course over the years many of the
15:20ordained priests left and married and
15:22they of course were expelled and they
15:25did not fear women or see them as a
15:27threat they married and they were
15:29expelled somehow I just cannot see Jesus
15:32expelling someone one of his followers
15:35who who was who said that he was going
15:39to get married that they had to leave
15:41the community but let me just say
15:44the church is in is in a big crisis the
15:47sexual abuse Scandal of course
15:49contributed to that but at the very core
15:51is the all-male priesthood men who see
15:55women as a threat you write among the
15:58thousands of Catholic priests who raped
16:00and sexually abused thousands of
16:02children the vast majority were not
16:05expelled from the priesthood or
16:08excommunicated every woman who has been
16:11ordained as a priest in the Catholic
16:12church has been expelled and
16:14excommunicated by the Vatican yes I I
16:17was very upset in a sense
16:19um saddened
16:21by the letter I got from the Vatican
16:24after I attended it came to the point
16:28where it was time to cross the line and
16:31I did the Unspeakable I actually
16:33attended the AutoNation ceremony of one
16:37of the many women called by God to the
16:40Catholic priesthood and now in Lexington
16:43Kentucky and her name was is Janice
16:47Severus desinski a long time Catholic a
16:50teacher in school and a long time friend
16:54and when she invited me to attend her
16:57ordination I thought about it I knew it
16:59was a serious invitation and I could get
17:01in trouble
17:02and I wrote back after much reflection
17:05and said it would be an honor and I went
17:07and hundreds came for the ordination and
17:11um but when I returned from the
17:13automation I was summoned I was summoned
17:15by Marino to go to the headquarters I
17:18had to go before the called The Superior
17:21General and the general Consul the
17:23leaders of Marinol and then they sent a
17:26report to the Vatican Pope Benedict
17:28whose Pope at the time and um
17:32it didn't take long they sent the report
17:34and I had to explain the the
17:38ceremony the automation ceremony was the
17:41same as when we were ordained and it was
17:44such a joy for everyone to be there but
17:46I must say my fellow priests did not
17:49share our joy they were very upset very
17:53angry and they wrote to the Vatican
17:57about my participation in this order
17:59nation and it didn't take long to get a
18:02letter from Pope Benedict the Vatican
18:04the congregation for the doctrine of the
18:07faith in the letter stated that I had
18:09caused grave scandal in the Catholic
18:12Church
18:13by believing in the ordination of women
18:15I want to ask you about El Salvador it's
18:18where we met I was covering the war you
18:20were very involved in uh Salvador you
18:23started the uh the Americas watch
18:27um uh but before I just want to as an
18:29aside you've also very been very
18:32outspoken about gbltq rights and one of
18:34the things you did you write about in
18:36the book that I thought was great you
18:38wrote all your friends in the priesthood
18:39who you knew or assumed Were Gay and
18:42asked them not you do have to come out
18:43of the closet but you do have to stand
18:45up for gbltq rights and of course I
18:48believe none of them did let's talk
18:50about Salvador you go to El Salvador in
18:52a fact-finding mission uh there was a
18:55famous moment where you disappear in El
18:57Salvador I think you went off with the
18:59fmln or something
19:01but talk about Salvador of course deeply
19:04affected me I was there for five years
19:06uh and you just became one of the
19:08Champions uh after that uh visit and uh
19:12of course set up this
19:13uh because Salvadoran soldiers were
19:16being trained at Fort Benning but talk
19:17about Salvador after being expelled from
19:20Bolivia after my Ministry there for five
19:22years I must say um
19:24I came back to the United States and
19:26then became very involved in El Salvador
19:29after Archbishop Oscar Romero was
19:31assassinated going down at the Oak sand
19:34mass and just once later for uh U.S
19:37Church women uh were raped and killed by
19:41the uh Salvadoran military and two of
19:45them Mara Clark and Edith Ford well
19:47there are no sisters nuns and good
19:49friends
19:50and I must say uh what happened to them
19:53really um
19:54was very serious
19:57um it was then later that I went to El
19:59Salvador and I had never seen anything
20:01quite like El Salvador reminded me of
20:04the amidst the violence and the death of
20:06Vietnam but
20:09um I came back from El Salvador I could
20:11not be silent like it was a slot of the
20:14Innocence and what hurt too was to see
20:16my country in the United States giving
20:19millions of dollars in military aid and
20:23of course training the military from
20:25Elsa at the school of the Americas at
20:27Fort Benning and when I was invited to
20:30go to to El Salvador on another trip
20:34that's when I was invited to to join
20:38um the landless farm the campesinos who
20:42were being killed uh to go off with them
20:45and that was very serious
20:48um I was missing for a while I was alive
20:51but we were way out in the you know the
20:54the mountains and um they thought I had
20:57been killed I was alive and when I came
21:01back from that experience it was another
21:04great opportunity to let the people know
21:06in the United States that we have to
21:10speak out at our silence on U.S foreign
21:13aid military aid to to to El Salvador
21:16was a grave Injustice when there's an
21:19injustice this is what I learned when
21:21there is an injustice silence is
21:24complicity
21:25and I couldn't be silent and you know
21:28about El Salvador I couldn't be silent
21:31about this issue of the all-meal
21:32priesthood
21:33silence when there is uh an injustice is
21:37complicit in that Injustice
21:40but I came back I must say uh once again
21:43death was very close in El Salvador I
21:46came back uh grateful to be alive and
21:49grateful
21:50I want to talk about prison uh uh you
21:53get out your first bout in prison you
21:54get out and go to I believe to a
21:55Trappist monastery I think you last
21:57about five months which is five months
21:59longer than I'd last there
22:01um uh but talk about the effect of
22:04prison on you there's a wonderful line
22:06in there I think where you said that you
22:08were free or in prison than you were in
22:10seminary is that right
22:12I know a prison family and friends I
22:15know it was a hard thing to understand
22:17and I've always appreciated that sort of
22:19unconditional love for my family my dear
22:22parents and you know two sisters and
22:25their brother in Louisiana and the
22:27support I got from them and friends
22:29going into prison protesting and going
22:32to prison for non-violent protests is
22:35very difficult for a lot of people but
22:37for us it's trying to be true to
22:39ourselves to be true to our experience
22:42this in life which is different from
22:44others and I and others have been in the
22:47movement over 250 who have crossed the
22:50line done protest and gone to prison
22:53I've served a total of a little over
22:55four years in federal prisons over the
22:57years
22:58but to be very honest when I got to
23:00prison
23:02um
23:03I did well I it was some of the best
23:05Retreats I've ever had I'm a great love
23:07of solitude I'm an activist but I really
23:10feel in my life it's important to have
23:13quiet time and prison was a time to I
23:16was in solitary confinement for a couple
23:18of months and that was challenging but
23:21there too I was able to read I had
23:24access to books of the great
23:26um
23:28theologians like Thomas Merton and many
23:30others John of the Cross and men and
23:33women
23:34really
23:35what we're a spiritual you know give me
23:38courage there and I always got out of
23:41prison feeling though this happened uh
23:44when I got up out of prison uh I was in
23:47solitary confinement and became very
23:49much of a contemplative
23:50and there was a time when I got out of
23:52prison I thought I was being called to
23:54the contemplative life
23:56and I used to make Retreats with the
23:57Trappist monks in Georgia and outside of
24:00Atlanta and I joined their Community
24:02thinking this is where I was being
24:04called it was all leading to this
24:06Vietnam Bolivia El Salvador was leading
24:10to to the monastery to be a
24:12contemplative Monk
24:14and um but I was there only five months
24:17and I realized that I'm not a full-time
24:21contemplative
24:23um meditation science Solitude spiritual
24:26reading is very much very important to
24:29me but I've got to integrate that in my
24:31active life I'm I'm not like most people
24:34uh do not live in a monastery or not
24:37full-time contemplatives but we need
24:39some quiet time especially at the end of
24:42a long day so many cup family members
24:44friends couples and I to have learned
24:48tried to learn to keep that balance but
24:51I came back from the monastery it was a
24:53good experience
24:54and um returned to Marino
24:57and really got much more involved in in
25:00the protesting of U.S foreign policy to
25:03Latin America with the support of my
25:06Americano Community I must say but when
25:09it came to the issue of again uh women
25:13being treated as equals uh honoring
25:17accepting the call of women to the
25:19priesthood
25:21they they just couldn't somehow handle
25:24that
25:25um
25:26and that's when I got in big trouble I
25:29was told the letter from the Vatican
25:31Pope Benedict said that I must
25:34recant my public support for the
25:37automation of women my belief that women
25:39can be ordained I had 30 days to recant
25:42or I would be expelled from the
25:44priesthood
25:46and I remember going on a retreat giving
25:49it a lot of thought
25:50and uh went to the Trappist monastery to
25:53think about that in return realizing I
25:56could not recant this would be a
25:58betrayal of my conscience it would do
26:00violence to what I believed in and I
26:03rode the Vatican and said what you're
26:04asking of me is not possible our loving
26:08God calls both men and women both men
26:11and women
26:12uh to the priesthood we are created
26:15equal and I will honor that and that
26:18they will come I said but when her too
26:21was how I and all the women are
26:24automatically excommunicated and
26:26expelled
26:28but the many many priests who raped
26:31sexually abused thousands according to
26:34the USA and the U.S alone over 5 000
26:38Catholic priests raped sexually abused
26:42over 12 000 children
26:45and these priests were not
26:46excommunicated nor were the Bishops who
26:50knew of their crimes and just
26:52transferred them to another Parish
26:55and of course that had caught up with
26:58the church the truth comes out
27:00and a big part of the crisis in the
27:04Catholic church today of course is that
27:06sexual abuse Scandal combined with the
27:09old meal priesthood in the church if it
27:12does not change and start ordaining
27:15women it will go the way of the
27:17dinosaurs I want to talk about Pope
27:19Francis he's good on many issues but not
27:21on the ordination of women exactly these
27:24light years on many issues ahead of you
27:27know like Pope John Paul Pope Benedict
27:30he's a much more Progressive
27:33but as the CEO of the all-meal
27:36priesthood his position on the
27:39ordination of women is no different from
27:42Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul
27:45in fact he quoted them Pope John Paul he
27:48said in Pope Benedict said the door the
27:52ordination is closed he said I agree
27:55with them
27:56the the ordination of women
27:59the door is closed women cannot be
28:01ordained and that hurt that hurt
28:05and um
28:07but let me just say if right now that
28:11the church is in a crisis as I mentioned
28:13mirror Noah is closed in many of its
28:15missions in Asia Africa and Latin
28:17America they're down to 250 priests and
28:21more than half are in retirement
28:24and um the Seminary that I attended the
28:27two Seminary their clothes their clothes
28:29their no vocations come in there and if
28:33the Catholic church again marinolus but
28:35a microcosm and if priest will not be
28:39ordained in the Catholic Roman Catholic
28:41tradition and women will be ordained and
28:44treated as equals the church will
28:47continue to diminish
28:49and um
28:51go out of the existence do you still
28:53think of yourself as a priest well they
28:56tell us when we are ordained thou are
28:58the priests forever according to the
29:00order of Melchizedek thou art a priest
29:02forever and they teach us this in the
29:04Seminary
29:06um and the many who married are so many
29:08over half of the Marino priests who were
29:11ordained are now married and many of
29:14them continue to be good friends
29:16and some of them continue to do Mass say
29:21mass for small communities and
29:24um
29:25so many of us have been expelled but
29:28we're taught in the Seminary and I feel
29:31you know I was a priest for 40 years
29:33another six years in the Seminary and
29:36that has been my life
29:38and um but I find I I feel a lot of Hope
29:42but my hope is not coming from
29:45the priest or the pope or certainly not
29:49the Bishops
29:51um it's coming they're not going to
29:53change it was like they're so addicted
29:56to their power they're not going to
29:58change
29:59my hope is coming from young people like
30:01in Latin America the change came not
30:04from the oppressors but it came from the
30:06oppressed from the bottom up not from
30:08the top down I learned that in Bolivia
30:10in El Salvador Nicaragua and I see this
30:14so many young people in my own family
30:17nieces and nephews they have not
30:20are not a part of the church
30:23because of the the church's teaching
30:26when it comes to the lgbtq community
30:28when it comes to women it's not
30:31complicated theology so many people in
30:34the Catholic Church especially okay
30:36sisters and brothers and uh women
30:40they are not treated as equal and theirs
30:44it costs for that and right now again
30:48um many Catholic churches are closing in
30:52my little where I grew up there were
30:54three churches back then there were like
30:56seven uh Catholic priests and down to
30:58one priest and that church when he
31:01venture to close real soon because they
31:03don't have the priests coming in to to
31:07do the work
31:09but I do believe perhaps not in my
31:12lifetime or doing this interview this is
31:14going to happen but I have no doubt that
31:17the Catholic Church will one day have
31:20women priests and also they will also
31:23have to change that church teaching
31:25that
31:27that
31:28homosexuality is a is a disorder
31:31I have a remember let me just touch on
31:34that I remember
31:37meeting after being expelled from the
31:39priesthood I was invited to give many
31:41talks but this uh
31:43the mother and father got in your side
31:46and wanted to talk and said that their
31:48son High School senior had committed
31:50suicide he was gay
31:52they accepted him no problem
31:56but they were catholic and the priests
31:58where they went to mass with ridicule
32:00and really it's very cruel toward the
32:04gay people and also at the school there
32:07was a lot of hurt
32:10and they said you know they told me I'll
32:12never forget what this said that the
32:15Catholic church is teaching on
32:16homosexuality played a part in the
32:20suicide of this their their son and that
32:25prompted me to write many long-time
32:28priest friends in Marinol I was with the
32:31community who had 40 years and many of
32:33them are gay and I wrote to them and
32:37asked in a respectful way could you
32:39please break your silence for young
32:42people and call for the church's
32:45teaching to change
32:46God created every one of equal worth and
32:50and um worth in
32:54equality and there are no exceptions in
32:58the way we the Catholic Church
33:01treating
33:02in our Behavior
33:05I was a LGBT brothers and sisters
33:09um
33:10it's uncalled for and it's it it's
33:14cruelty it's it's a heresy at its worst
33:18and I must say I I'm sad to say that
33:21very few of the gay priests responded to
33:24my letter they too are accepted in
33:27Marino in the priesthood but on one
33:29condition they cannot break their
33:31silence and go against that Church's
33:34teaching and they know if they do
33:36the same will happen to them where they
33:39are going to be expelled they are going
33:42to lose their power and many privileges
33:45as the Catholic priest and they are not
33:47willing to risk uh losing their powers
33:51so they are silent silence
33:54when there's an injustice is complicity
33:58and I just hope that one day they can
34:00break their silence great I want to
34:04thank the real news network and its
34:05production team Cameron grenadino Adam
34:07Coley Dwayne Gladden and Kayla Rivera
34:10you can find me at
34:11chrisedges.substact.com
34:15[Music]
34:22foreign
34:24[Music]

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