The Vatican said Thursday it still hasn't received new regarding Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, however it said if news reports were accurate then Milingo's statements would be "deplored."
As reported, after remaining quiet in recent years, Milingo held a press conference Wednesday to announce that he plans to embark on an independent charismatic ministry to reconcile married priests with the Catholic Faith. According to Milingo, married priests from Italy, South America and the United States are planning on him as he launches "a ministry for the renewal of family for the future of the Catholic Faith."
Until recently it was thought that Milingo 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 said Wednesday.
"The Holy See has not yet received precise information concerning the aim of the journey to the United States of America by Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia," the Vatican said. "In any case, if the declarations attributed to him concerning ecclesiastical celibacy were to prove authentic, the only thing to do would be to deplore them, Church discipline on this matter being well known."
Milingo has made waves in the past for his "non-conventional" healing ministry, not to mention his brief, but very public marriage in 2001 to the South Korean acupuncturist Maria Sung in an marriage that was arranged by Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church.
It is reported that Milingo is planning on returning to Maria Sung, although Milingo had said 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."
Milingo has found support in another renegade priest -George Augustus Stallings, founder and archbishop of the African American Catholic Congregation (AACC). Stallings married his wife, Sayomi, a former Moon aide, at the same wedding as Milingo. They have two children.
RSS