Activist Priest Will Talk Politics at Kenyon

GAMBIER, Ohio (September 23, 2009)

The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Roman Catholic priest facing excommunication, will discuss the modern relationship between politics and the Church on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Higley Auditorium, 202 N. College Road.

Before entering the priesthood, Roy Bourgeois earned a Purple Heart medal while serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. After entering the priesthood in 1972, Bourgeois was sent to Bolivia, where he spent five years working with the poor before he was deported for speaking out against Bolivian dictator General Hugo Banzer. Bourgeois became a critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America after four churchwomen were killed by the Salvadoran National Guard. In 1990, he formed the School of the Americas Watch, an organization that advocates the closing of the School of the Americas, where the U.S. Department of Defense has trained Latin American military officers. Bourgeois has also worked on Academy Award-nominated films, including Gods of Metal and School of Assassins.

Bourgeois faces excommunication by the Vatican for his call to ordain women into the priesthood. He is now bringing attention to the current leadership crisis in Honduras and will discuss that situation at Kenyon, said Kenyon student Richard P. Freund of Palisades, Calif. "He has been meeting with various political and religious leaders and wants to talk to Kenyon about that situation and hopefully add some perspective from his unique background," Freund said.

This lecture is sponsored by the Board of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Crozier Center for Women, the Department of Religious Studies, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. For more information, contact Freund at freundr@kenyon.edu and at 310-980-6371. The lecture is free and the public is encouraged to attend.