Roy Bourgeois, nationally known peace activist priest, is facing excommunication for supporting the ordination of women.

Elliott Minor, Associated Press

Catholic priest Roy Bourgeois stands outside the main gate to Fort Benning in this Nov. 15, 2005 file photo., in Columbus, Ga. Bourgeois faces excommunication for supporting the ordination of women priest. Elliott Minor

A Georgia priest facing excommunication for supporting the ordination of women said Friday he plans to visit the Vatican with a contingent of fellow priests and a bishop to appeal the decision.

Roy Bourgeois, 69, a Maryknoll priest and nationally known peace activist, ran afoul of Vatican doctrine by participating in an Aug. 9 ceremony in Lexington, Kentucky, to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Recent popes have said the Roman Catholic Church cannot ordain women because Christ chose only males as apostles.

"Who are we as men to say to women that our call to the priesthood is valid, but yours is not?" Bourgeois said in a telephone interview. "As Catholics we profess that the invitation to priesthood comes from God, and I believe that we are hampering with the sacred when we say that women must be excluded from being priests. That invitation is from God."

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