He grew up in a Catholic working-class family, and attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in geology.

From 1956-57 Bourgeois had a brief stint as an actor, playing helicopter pilot Roy in eight episodes of the Highway Patrol television series (including the episodes Desert Copter and Ranch Copter) and having an uncredited bit role in the film adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel The Wayward Bus.

In 1975 he was accused of, and was arrested for, attempting to overthrow Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer, a 1958 graduate of the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia.

He became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America after four American churchwomen were (three of them nuns, and two of them personal friends of Bourgeois) were brutally raped and murdered by a death squad consisting of soldiers from the Salvadoran National Guard, some of whom had been trained at the SOA/WHINSEC.

In 1990, Bourgeois founded the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch), a not-for-profit organization that seeks to close the SOA (since 2000 known as WHINSEC) 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.

[7] 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.

"[7] In 1998, Bourgeois testified before a Spanish judge seeking the extradition of Chile's ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

[9] In August 2008, in keeping with his belief that women should be ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood, 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.

[10] In 2011, Bourgeois was briefly detained by police at the Vatican on October 17, when he tried to deliver a petition to the Holy See with a number of women priests, who were dressed in their liturgical garments.

[12] Bourgeois has spent over four years in federal prisons for nonviolent protests, including entering Fort Benning.

Bourgeois was a celebrant in, and delivered the homily during the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska under the auspices of the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which rejects the Church's teaching on the all-male priesthood.

It gave him 30 days from October 21, 2008, to recant his "belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or (he) will be excommunicated."

Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer acting on Bourgeois' behalf, asked for discussions and negotiatations on the matter with the Maryknoll Society and, through it, the Holy See.

On May 22, 1994, Pope John Paul II released an apostolic letter, addressed to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, entitled "On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis)," which closes as follows:[19] Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.

[20] "Arguments against this clear and authoritative teaching," wrote Keith Fournier on Catholic Online, "sometimes come from people who do not understand that the priesthood is not a job and have succumbed to the 'rights' mentality of the current age.

[23] On July 22, 2011, 157 Catholic priests signed a letter, addressed to Dougherty, in support of Bourgeois's priesthood and work, and his right to conscience.

While the letter did not specifically address the issue of women's ordination, it did indicate the signees' support of the right of priests to speak from conscience without being in danger of sanction.

In his August 8, 2011, letter of response,[24] Bourgeois wrote, in part: I believe that our Church's teaching that excludes women from the priesthood defies both faith and reason and cannot stand up to scrutiny.

Thomas Doyle wrote a letter to the Maryknoll Society asking that "reputable theologians" be brought in to examine the case "in order to look much more deeply" into two central issues: the Church's claim that the teaching on women's ordination is infallible, and the right of a Catholic "to act and think according to the dictates of his conscience" even if the conclusions put one in conflict with the Church's highest authorities.

The Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Faith Canonically Dismisses Roy Bourgeois Maryknoll, New York – November 19, 2012 – The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on October 4, 2012, canonically dismissed Roy Bourgeois from the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, also known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

Mr. Bourgeois freely chose his views and actions, and all the members of the Maryknoll Society are saddened at the failure of reconciliation.

With this parting, the Maryknoll Society warmly thanks Roy Bourgeois for his service to mission and all members wish him well in his personal life.