Activism
1972-1975 Fr. Bourgeois began the work of his priesthood in La Paz, Bolivia aiding the poor. In 1975 he was accused of, and was arrested for, attempting to overthrow Bolivian dictator General Hugo Banzer Suarez, a 1958 graduate of the School of the Americas (SOA) (now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)) at Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia. Bourgeois was eventually deported from Bolivia and returned to the United States.
1980 Fr. Bourgeois moved to a Catholic Worker house in Chicago where he continued his work with the poor. He became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America after four American churchwomen (three of them nuns, and two of them personal friends of Bourgeois) were killed by a death squad consisting of soldiers from the Salvadoran National Guard, some of whom had been trained at the SOA/WHINSEC. Killed were Sister Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Sister Ita Ford, and Sister Dorothy Kazel.
1989 Fr. Bourgeois's criticism of US foreign policy in Latin America intensified on November 16, 1989 when six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper's daughter were massacred on the campus of Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador. Armed men in uniform burst into their shared residence and indiscriminately gunned-down everyone within. The massacre was performed by the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite unit of the Salvadoran Army, and a rapid-response, counter-insurgency battalion created in 1980 at SOA/WHINSEC.
1990 Fr. Bourgeois founded the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch), a not-for-profit organization that seeks to close the SOA/WHINSEC -- labelled the "School of the Assassins" by anti-SOA activists -- and to change U.S. foreign policy in Latin America by educating the public, lobbying Congress and participating in creative, nonviolent resistance such as demonstrations and nonviolent protest. The SOA/WHINSEC has long maintained that it does not teach tactics that can be used on civilians but, rather, simply sharpens the military skills of soldiers from participating countries. Its website says it "provides professional education and training for civilian, military and law enforcement students." SOA Watch claims its work caused the Pentagon to respond to the growing anti-SOA movement with a PR campaign to give the SOA a new image. "In an attempt to disassociate the school with its horrific past," the SOA Watch website claims, "the SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in January of 2001."
1998 Fr. Bourgeois testified before a Spanish judge seeking the extradition of Chile's ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet.
2008 In August 2008, in keeping with his belief that women should be ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood, Fr. Bourgeois was a celebrant in, and delivered the homily at the ordination ceremony of Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of Womenpriests, at a Unitarian Universalist church in Lexington, Kentucky.
2011 Fr. Bourgeois was briefly detained by police at the Vatican on 17 October when he tried to deliver a petition to the Holy See with a number of women priests, who were dressed in their liturgical garments.
2012 Fr. Bourgeois was part of a panel discussion at the New York premiere of the documentary Pink Smoke Over the Vatican. The film features activists for women’s ordination in the Catholic Church, and included clips of an interview with him.
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