Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is back in the news - now he's claiming to be on a mission to reconcile married Catholic priests with the Church.
After remaining quiet in recent years, Milingo says he plans to embark on an independent charismatic ministry to reconcile married priests with the Catholic Faith. Married priests from Italy, South America and the United States will join the archbishop as he launches a ministry for the renewal of family for the future of the Catholic Faith, according to Milingo - who it was widely thought was in seclusion in Italy.
"The Church has nothing to lose by allowing priests the option to marry. Historically, out of holy marriages have come priests, popes, and loving servants of God and the Church," Milingo says.
Milingo has made waves in the past for his "non-conventional" healing ministry, not to mention his brief, but very public marriage in 2001, as well as his call for an end to mandatory celibacy.
"There is no more important healing than the reconciliation of 150,000 married priests with the 'Mother Church,' and the healing of a Church in crisis through renewing marriage and family," says Milingo.
Milingo was consecrated by Pope Paul VI in 1969 at the age of 39 as a bishop of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, where he became an exorcist in the 1970s. In a press release announcing his new ministry, Milingo says he was called to Rome in 1982 amidst controversy over his "extraordinary healing powers," failing to mention that another reason was his repeated performing of exorcisms without the Church's approval.
Similarily, according to Milingo his ministry to "'preach the Gospel, heal the sick and cast out devils' flourished in Europe, and his popularity grew despite efforts to restrict his ministry" doesn't mention that he was actually in Rome serving on the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.
By the turn of the millenium Milingo had become a supporter of Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church, and Milingo even allowed Sun Myung Moon to arrange a 2001 marriage to the South Korean acupuncturist Maria Sung.
According to Milingo, that marriage was not recognized by the Church, "and out of respect and love for the Holy Father," he "honored the pontiff's request to return to his healing ministry in Rome." It was widely reported that Milingo had since spent considerable time in seclusion praying for repentance, and was last heard of in Italy in 2004.
"Archbishop Milingo is not seeking to defy or divide the (Roman Catholic) Church, but is acting out of deep love for the Church and concern for its future," according to George Augustus Stallings, founder of the African American Catholic Congregation (AACC), in the same press release announcing the launching of Milingo's "ministry."
Stallings claims to be an archbishop of the schismatic AACC and also has a bit of a checkered past - marrying his wife, Sayomi, a former Moon aide, at the same Moonie wedding as Milingo. They have two children.
RSS