Ian,
I am praying for Fr. Bourgeois, of course, and deeply saddened that Maryknoll has allowed him to reach a point of seemingly no return.
I love Maryknoll (I am a child of their mission), but it breaks my heart that somewhere in the recent past, the Order has been infected with the Liberation Theology virus and it went downhill with other liberal causes after that.
The virus seemed to have started when Fr. Miguel D'Escoto was at the helm of the Order and publisher of their Orbis Books, which also published Rev. Jeremiah Wright's marxist book on Black Liberation Theology (just to give you the idea.) It seems that Fr. Bourgois became Fr. D'Escoto's closest deciple, and no telling how many other priests and nuns took the same turn.
Every time I hear about Maryknoll these days, there's always something to be sad about that were unheard of in my days as their student in early 1960's.
They were pretty orthodox then and the nuns were heroic in their efforts to teach the young and minister to the poor. They have since dropped teaching and now confine themselves to peace-and-justice ministry with a large dose of marxist feminism. (A former teacher whom I was fond of now espouses a strange concept of Asian feminist Christianity.)
Even after D'Escoto's excommunication by the Church, his influence can still be felt high and wide:
MIGUEL D'ESCOTO BROCKMANNQuote:
Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, M.M., born in Los Angeles[1] on February 5, 1933, is a Nicaraguan diplomat, politician and Catholic priest. He is ambassador of Libya to UN.[2] [3] As the President of the United Nations General Assembly from September 2008 to September 2009, he presided over the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.[4][5]
Quote:
While foreign minister, he received the Lenin Peace Prize for 1985-6,
Quote:
During a visit to Central America, Pope John Paul II admonished him for political activity.[7] Like one of those "false priests" that Lenin described would "float into the Catholic Church to betray the Church from within," he was publicly denounced for not resigning his office as minister of this communist government. He was suspended for not resigning his political office, which he held against his own vows