I met Fr. Bourgeoise years ago. He founded the group that protests the formerly named "School of the Americas". I also left a comment on this article on the LoHud website.
Vatican may discipline Maryknoll priest over woman's 'ordination' | lohud.com | The Journal News
For a clear explanation of why the Catholic Church cannot ordain women, go here to the 1976 Church document giving an "official" explanation. It takes about 20 minutes to read:
Or here's a shorter explanation, written by a priest-associate of Maryknoll (he spent seven years in Peru). Fr. Phil Bloom wrote this in 1998 after a brief papal document came out, again affirming the all-male priesthood. Go here and see the excerpt below:
Women Priests in Catholic Church?
Here we must be extremely careful of arguing that Jesus in choosing only men was limited by his culture. First, the Incarnation means that from all eternity He knew he would be born a first century Paletinian Jew. He chose that culture. But second, and this is most to the point, he often went against the norms of his culture. The Gospel is one of the great counter-cultural documents, not just for us twenty centuries later, but at the very time and place the words were spoken and written. Jesus had a lot of smart and zealous women disciples (some of them pretty good contributors to boot). However he selected only men for the Twelve on which he would found the new Israel, his Church. That choice cannot have been an accident that Jesus would have easily revised if he had forseen our American Republic and its civil rights laws.
A "reductio ad absurdam" is sometimes used at this point. His disciples were not only men, they were all Palestinian Jews. Should only Jews be priests? I'm afraid that this hits on one of the really big scotoma (blind spots) of our culture. I heard a women say, "In one way I am glad I am female because I can understand how blacks feel." You don't. At least by virtue of being a woman, you do not. The two experiences are radically different.
The earliest Church was composed entirely of Palestinian Jews but quickly accepted the Hellenists and finally the uncircumcised Greeks. When each group entered, the men brought their women with them–and vica versa. And they all accepted the male priesthood as an essential part of Jesus' plan for our salvation.
I think you can see where I am going. The male priesthood is necessary because Jesus the Bridegroom had to be male. Only a male can represent him at the altar, the renewal of the great act of sacrifice by which he gave himself totally for his Bride. After talking about marriage and the mystery of human sexuality, St. Paul says, "There is a great sacrament (misterion) here. I take it to apply to Christ and his Church." The very reason God created sexuality and made that theme run through his creation and his Bible, is to suggest, to foreshadow, to signify what will endure when this passing world is gone. The wedding feast of the Lamb and his beautiful bride (the Church).
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