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CORPUS is a faith community affirming an inclusive priesthood rooted in a reformed and renewed Church.
CORPUS, celebrating forty-four years of service to the people of God, is one of the oldest reform groups in the Catholic Church, and is active in reform movements both in the U.S. and abroad. We are committed to working for a renewed priesthood of married and single men and women dedicated to serving God through the Community of Believer.
The Nativity of John the Baptist
Preparation/Continuation
John the Baptist's ministry was one of preparation; ours is one of continuation. We continue Christ's mission so that the ministry of his church in the future can be more effective. It doesn't matter whether or not we are appreciated. But it does matter that we are faithful to God who called us to salvation. Like John, we cannot be silent. We cannot be afraid of contradiction and ridicule. We cannot be afraid to pay the price for carrying on the prophetic mission of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Henry Guertin-Ouellette
REST IN PEACE
May 29, 2018
Kittery, Maine - Henry Guertin-Ouellete, of Kittery Maine, died Tuesday, May 29, 2018. The son of Paul and Ida (Caron) Ouellette.
Henry was born in 1924 in Salem, MA. Henry had a passion for inquiry and knowledge. He attended Assumption College in Worcester and St John’s Seminary in Brighton, receiving his BA in 1945. Henry entered the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1949. He received a scholarship from the French government and attended the Catholic University in Paris, where he completed his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1951.
Upon returning to the states, Henry began what turned out to be a long career in academia. Beginning at Matignon High School in Cambridge, he progressed to become the Chair of the Psychology Department of Emmanuel College in Boston, a position he held for 18 years. Henry’s role as an educator was one of the main cornerstones of his life. The other was his professional involvement in the field of Psychology. True to form, Henry rose to a prominent position in the field, spearheading the movement for the licensure of Psychologists in the state of MA. He became the first chairman of the Licensing Board, a position he held 1972-1974, and proudly held license #1 in the state of Massachusetts. Through his involvement in various boards and commissions, he received numerous awards and honors. In addition to his academic and professional activities, Henry also maintained a private practice, providing counselling services for individuals and couples.
PETITION FOR REV. ROY BOURGEOIS
The Corpus Executive Council is very pleased to present this petition for reinstating Rev. Roy Bourgeois — who is being unjustly punished for preaching at a woman’s ordination. He told the Vatican that it was against his conscience to say that he did not believe in the ordination of women. Because Corpus is publicly on record for favoring the restoration of a married priesthood in the Western Church, and for reviving the ordination of women in the Catholic Communion of Churches, we ask Pope Francis to follow the majority of Catholics who stand in solidarity with Rev. Roy Bourgeois.
John and Maureen Sheehan, Gloria Durka and Paul Bumbar.
A. Prologue
The excommunication of Fr. Roy Bourgeois by the Vatican occurred because he preached a homily at the ordination of his friend, Janice Sevre-Duszynska, on August 9, 2008. The Vatican Decree cited in his dismissal came from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that stated, on May 29, 2008, “A bishop involved in the ordination of a woman — and the woman herself — is excommunicated “latae sententiae” (automatically).”
This Vatican Decree was broadened to include Roy’s action (and that of other like-minded “offenders”) because he was not, in fact, the ordaining bishop at the ceremony. We stand in support of Roy Bourgeois because 1. We wholeheartedly approve of the stance he has taken on the basis of “primacy of conscience” and, 2. Because we ourselves are publicly on record for favoring the ordination of women and married men in the Catholic Church.
There is a curious disconnect in the Vatican action against Roy: he has been censured precisely because he is a priest. We, who are, mostly, laity have, generally, not been censored, either because our status is somehow inferior to that of priests, or, perhaps, because there are way too many of us — tens of millions — who have voiced the identical approval of women priests that Roy embraced.
B. Summary of Roy Bourgeois’ Achievements
Roy exemplifies a number of qualities and experiences that few can match: a four year veteran in the Navy, winning a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam; five years working as a Maryknoll priest in the slums of Bolivia; then time in the inner cities of El Salvador and Chicago; starting the School of the America’s Watch 25 years ago; serving over 4 years — 1460 days — cumulative time in jail for peaceful protests against SOA and nuclear war.
No one who has met Roy — or worked with him at the yearly SOA demonstrations — can gainsay his honesty, warmth, and commitment. He is, clearly, a modern day prophet, a man who has consistently been able to carefully discern and then act upon the truths that he is convinced in conscience must be embraced. He summarizes this well in his booklet “My Journey From Silence to Solidarity” when he writes: “Often I think of my commanding officer in Vietnam, years ago, who told me, ‘Lieutenant, your job in the military is to implement our country’s foreign policy, not to question or discuss it.’ Today I hear our church leaders saying something very similar when they tell priests and Catholics ‘Your job in the church is to implement our Church’s teachings, not to question or discuss them.’”
RESPONSE TO FRIENDS WHO WROTE-CORPUS REPORTS
RESPONSE TO FRIENDS WHO WROTE—MAY CORPUS REPORT
Dear Friends,
Reading the letters you wrote on the occasion of my retirement from work as Corpus Ambassador, I was astonished and moved. A number of you were not primarily Corpus members but, rightfully, saw your work as critical to the success of all of us.
You took care and time to write gratefully and gracefully. If I worked on your behalf it was because you convinced me by just getting to know you that we were all summoned to serve a great cause. We were making more than the reform of the Church functional. We were making the world better by making one another better.
A symphony works only because it is filled with talented people. As I read your letters I felt anew how life -giving we were not only because of that talent but by standing side by side together.
It was and is a humbling experience to sit at your sides in meetings and to learn that the real meaning of these meetings was not the agenda but the participants.
Thank you for giving me such a gift. You were the singers of the song and the makers of the poems.
Anthony
Making Sense of Man's Inhumanity to Man
Making Sense of Man’s Inhumanity to Man
by Hank Mattimore
If one of the major tasks of old age is to make sense of life, I flunk.
For starters I can’t begin to comprehend the isolation, the loneliness the rejection that drove a young man to plan and execute the brutal murder of 17 human beings, most of them his own peers. My eight decades of life experience can’t tell me why.
Like so many of us, the word “disheartened” comes to mind. Our humanity is sickened, “dis-heartened” as though our hearts have been murdered along with the victims.
We cope in different ways when we hear of yet another school massacre. We rage at the greed of our elected representatives who are selling their very souls for the filthy lucre of campaign money.
We shed tears for the victims and their families and yes, for ourselves because allowing the killing of our children to happen poisons the air we breathe, casts a dark cloud of sadness and despair over our lives.
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