|
Catholic Archbishop weds Moonie
28/05/2001 08:26 - (SA)
New York - Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo on Sunday quietly thumbed his nose at the Vatican by marrying a Korean woman in a mass marriage ceremony presided over by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church.
Catholic Church rules bar priests from marrying unless they first
abandon priesthood.
The 71-year-old former archbishop of Lusaka married a 43-year-old
doctor, Maria Sung, chosen for him by Moon in a ceremony attended
by 60 couples here.
Milingo, wearing a tuxedo with a red carnation, sat in the front
row of the ballroom in the Hilton Hotel here as Moon and his wife
performed the ceremony in Korean. All brides wore white with
flowers in their hair.
Moon asked the couples four questions in Korean, including: "Do you pledge to be a true husband and wife for eternity?" to which they answered "yes" collectively in English.
Milingo told reporters he continued to love the Catholic Church and wished it no harm.
"Painfully, I have become a challenge for the Church that I love,
and the Church that I love has become a fetter that restricts me
from my God-given mission," he said in a statement.
"I have wrestled in prayer, asking myself which shall prevail: my
vow of obedience to ecclesiastic authority, or my pledge of
obedience to God?"
Milingo said he saw his new wife for the first time only last
Thursday.
However, he said the couple intended to have children "if God will allow it".
"Abraham procreated at 100 years old," he remarked.
The ceremony was the culmination of a 50-state US tour by Moon
dedicated to rebuilding the family.
Moon's spokesman Phillip Schanker said the archbishop had no
intention of joining the Unification Church and would remain a
Roman Catholic.
A Vatican spokesman said on Saturday that the Holy See was awaiting a formal declaration from Milingo before acting.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls was quick to point out that for a certain time already, Archbishop Milingo had not carried out any official religious functions for the church.
Born in 1930 in a village in eastern Zambia, Milingo became a
Catholic priest at age 28.
Famous across Africa for his radio appearances, the Zambian
preacher was nominated Archbishop of Lusaka at age 39, a post he
held for 14 years before falling out of favour with the Vatican.
Milingo's activities as a healer and an exorcist provoked strong
condemnation from the Holy See.
He was recalled to Rome in 1983 but managed to keep his rank of
archbishop.
Later, in his autobiography "The Healer of Souls", he accused the
Vatican of "kidnapping" him and forcing him to live for months -
"like a prisoner" - in a monastery.
He was eventually made deputy head of an organisation dealing with tourism at the Vatican, where he lived in virtual exile.
But he resumed his healing activities, first in Rome and later
throughout Italy, Europe and around the world.
Afterward, he recorded a couple of music albums, the first entitled "Gubudu Gubudu" ("The Drunkard") and the second an eponymous album dedicated to the continuing battle against evil.
The Vatican has steadily grown more exasperated with the Zambian,
particularly after he became cozy with the controversial
Unification Church, now with around 200 000 members world-wide known as "Moonies", after their leader.
The "Moonies" are known for their cult-like behaviour, including
mass marriages in major sporting venues around the world.
Politically right-wing, the organisation has also been criticised
for its business practices, alleged tax evasion and manipulation of public opinion. - AFP
- SAPA
|
