Only in the Boston Globe: Excommunicated Priest is 'Prominent,' 'In Good Standing'

What do you call an excommunicated Catholic priest, ignorant of the sacraments, who openly calls for the ordination of women? If you're the Boston Globe, you call him a "prominent priest" who is "in good standing." Then, for good measure, you entitle the article about the priest, "Priest takes church to task for not ordaining women." Good ... grief.

The paper profiles dissident ex-priest Roy Bourgeois, a man ignorant of the teachings of the Church to which he was ordained. And the author of the slanted piece, Globe religion reporter Michael Paulson, fails to fully "take Bourgeois to task" for being so oblivious of such a fundamental facet of Church teaching.

While Paulson accurately quotes John Paul II's 1994 letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women," Paulson neglects a very important fact. In the Catholic faith, "Holy Orders" is a sacrament, and sacraments were instituted by Jesus himself. This is the important reason why the Church simply does not have the authority to change something Jesus instituted. For example, the Church could not decide tomorrow that it will baptize with goat milk instead of water. It just can't do that. The reason is much deeper than just "tradition and the fact that Jesus' apostles were male." Got it, Michael?

To read more about the misguided and unmindful Bourgeois, check out "Roy Bourgeois, aka Jimmy Carter with a Roman collar," by Carl Olson at the Ignatius Press blog.

Finally ... The fact that Paulson comes across as cheerleading for Bourgeois' cause does nothing for the reputation that the Boston Globe has a long and deep animus for the Catholic Church. (And this reputation goes back waaaay back before the scandals hit in 2002.)