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Archbishop marries in “Moonie” ceremony
Penalty is excommunication
The Vatican is preparing to make a formal announcement of the excommunication of a renegade archbishop who took part in a group marriage ceremony organized by the Unification Church in New York.
Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, an eccentric African prelate who had been retired from pastoral duties for nearly 20 years because of his erratic behavior, was wedded to a 43-year-old Korean woman during a “collective marriage” ceremony under the auspices of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Milingo, who is 71, incurred the penalty of excommunication by participating in the ritual.
In a statement released after the ceremony, the Holy See acknowledged Milingo’s action “with great sorrow,” and said that he would be subject to “canonical sanctions, which, in the near future, will be communicated to him and then made public.” The Vatican statement indicated that Milingo could no longer “be considered a bishop of the Catholic Church.”
When the news of Archbishop Milingo’s intention to marry first became public on May 26, the Vatican issued a terse announcement saying that there had been no direct communication from the archbishop himself. “In any case, we hope that the news which is circulating is not true,” added papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. However, Navarro-Valls also reminded reporters that “Archbishop Milingo has not, for some time now, worked in a diocese or in any office of the Roman Curia.”
The Italian daily Il Messaggero reported on May 26 that Archbishop Milingo had announced his plans to be married—to a woman he apparently had not met. Il Messaggero added that the African archbishop had previously attended a “collective marriage” ceremony organized by the Moon sect, in Seoul, Korea, in 1999. The newspaper reported that because of his unauthorized participation in the rite, the Holy See had suspended him from exercising his episcopal authority.
Actually, Archbishop Milingo had not been exercising his episcopal duties for years. He had been living an uneasy existence, based in Rome, since 1982, when he resigned under fire from his post as Archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia. After being named to head his native Lusaka diocese in 1973, when he was just 39, Archbishop Milingo became involved in irregular ceremonies, incorporating native African rituals which he classified as both exorcisms and healing services. He became known as the “witch-doctor bishop,” and his free-lance approach eventually prompted the Vatican to ask for his resignation.
Brought to live in Rome, with few formal duties, the African prelate continued his “healing services” for Italian groups, eventually drawing complaints from bishops in that country. Milan’s Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini was a persistent critic of Milingo’s behavior. In April 1996 he received a new warning from the Holy See, asking him to curb his involvement in illicit liturgical ceremonies. He was also declared persona non grata in several Italian dioceses. Meanwhile, Archbishop Milingo pursued other interests, performing publicly as a singer and dancer and producing two albums of his songs.
After participating in the “Moonie” service in New York, Milingo told reporters that he intended to start a family, because “the sacrifice of a celibate life has served its purpose.” But he also made it clear that he intended his gesture as a direct challenge to the Vatican. And he heaped praise on the founder of the Unification Church, the self-proclaimed Messiah, Sun Myung Moon.
“By participating in the public marriage rite of the ‘Moon’ sect,” the Vatican announced, Milingo “has de facto placed himself outside of the Catholic Church and has inflicted a serious wound on the communion which bishops above all must show with the Church.”
The former archbishop now faces canonical sanctions on several other possible grounds:
• by apparently joining the Moon sect, he became a formal heretic and apostate, subject to excommunication on those grounds as well as for breaking the communion of bishops with the Holy See;
• by attempting a civil marriage, he incurred suspension from priestly duties;
• by persisting in an action that caused grave public scandal, even after receiving formal warnings, he became subject to penalties that could include being stripped of his priestly status.