Roy Bougious “Peace, Justice, Equality and Conscience in Latin America.”

Roy Bourgeois shared his thoughts, ideas, experiences and philosopy with the Rochester community.  His talk encompassed his thoughts on the Catholic Church, equal marriage, SOA,  "Las 17", women in the priesthood, and his own canonical dismissal from both the Maryknolls, and the Roman Catholic priesthood. 

Roy Bourgeois, a priest for more than 40 years, became an outspoken opponent of U.S. policy in Latin America after four U.S. churchwomen--two of them friends of his--were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. In 1990, he founded School of the Americas (SOA) Watch to shut down the school in Fort Benning, Georgia, that trained the military perpetrators of repression and torture in Latin America to conduct campaigns against democratic movements from the 1980s on. SOA Watch has grown to more than 10,000 supporters.

He has since cumulatively spent more than 4 years in Federal prison for his nonviolent protests against the SOA. He produced a documentary about the SOA, called “School of Assassins,” which was nominated for an Academy Award. Nominated for a Nobel Prize in 2010, Father Bourgeois continues to oppose the school that has been renamed, but still trains Latin American military leaders in oppressive tactics. He and an SOA Watch delegation recently traveled to El Salvador where they met with the Salvadoran President Ceren, human rights leaders and others who inspired them to keep working to close the SOA/WHINSEC. The delegation also met with 5 of 17 Salvadoran women who have been sentenced to 30-year prison terms for having miscarriages. He has been working since his return from El Salvador to ensure that "Las 17" are not forgotten. On April 24, he and others launched a sit-in at the Embassy of El Salvador in Washington, D.C, to bring attention to this injustice and free the women. They were arrested and jailed overnight.