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ROME (Reuters) - The curious saga of Emmanuel Milingo, the archbishop who defected to the sect of the Rev Sun Myung Moon and married a Korean, turned even curiouser Friday when a spokesman said Milingo had returned to the Catholic fold.
"He has decided to return to our Church," said Maurizio Bisantis, an Italian who has been escorting Milingo around Rome since the Zambian archbishop's surprise return this week from New York and who has been acting as his spokesman.
Asked which Church he was referring to, Bisantis told Reuters: "Why our Church, the Catholic Church, of course. As of last night he has returned to the Church."
The Vatican, which has put Milingo under threat of excommunication, said it knew nothing of the decision.
Bisantis said Milingo, already controversial as a faith healer and exorcist, had gone on a spiritual retreat and would not resurface for about 15 or 20 days. He said Milingo was staying somewhere in Italy but would not say where.
Bisantis said Milingo's new wife, a Korean acupuncturist, was last seen at an airport hotel in Milan and that it was not clear whether she would be seeing her husband.
TALE FELLINI WOULD HAVE ENVIED
The Milingo saga has been one that would have made the late Italian director Federico Fellini, no stranger to fantasy tales bordering on the surreal, seem like a documentary maker.
Milingo told reporters Wednesday he was torn between his wife, his respect for sect leader Rev Sun Myung Moon and his loyalty to the pope.
The last time he was seen in public, the 71-year-old Zambian had said he hoped to have a second meeting with the pope on Friday. But Bisantis said that would not take place.
Milingo turned up unexpectedly in Rome Monday in an apparent mission to make amends with the Roman Catholic world, which he scandalized in May when he joined Moon's controversial Unification Church and married a bride chosen by Moon.
Moon, a Korean, is hailed as the Messiah by his followers but has been strongly criticized in several countries.
In Rome, Milingo has been wearing his bishop's episcopal ring on his right hand and what appears to be a wedding ring on his left. He has been wearing the dark suit of a bishop but, forswearing the usual white clerical dog collar, has preferred the open-necked green shirt of a tourist in a sweltering summer.
Last month, the Vatican read Milingo the religious riot act, telling him he risked excommunication if he did not leave his wife, sever links with Moon, and declare his fidelity to the pope and the Catholic Church's discipline of celibacy.
Excommunication is a total cutting off from the Catholic Church. In modern times it has been rare, particularly for high-ranking prelates.
POPE OFFENDED
The Vatican originally set a deadline of Aug. 20 for Milingo to make a decision but suspended the deadline this week after Milingo arrived in Rome and stirred up what is usually a deadly quiet August at the Vatican.
At one news conference, a reporter put himself in the awkward position of asking a man still technically an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church if he had consummated his marriage blessed by a second "church" not recognized by the first.
The answer, which Milingo declined to give, could affect a solution to the strange, unprecedented dilemma into which he has thrown the Vatican.
Despite Milingo's trip to Rome, most observers believe his career in the Roman Catholic Church is essentially over following the spectacular way in which he joined Moon's church in New York and married.
Vatican sources said at the time that the pope felt hurt by Milingo's actions, because the pontiff had often been lenient with him when others in the Church felt he should be disciplined for unauthorized faith healing and exorcism.
WASHINGTON -- Mystery surrounded Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo Thursday as he prepared for a possible second meeting with Pope John Paul II.
After a four-day separation, his wife is reportedly on her way to join him in the Italian capital, Rome.
The African prelate is currently out of contact with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon who wedded him to South Korean acupuncturist Maria Sung in May, according to Moon's spokesman Phillip Schanker.
"The archbishop is staying in a villa outside Rome where he cannot be reached," the Rev. Schanker continued. "His wife is coming down from Milan. If she does not hear from her husband by Friday she is going to give a press conference."
Two weeks before his threatened excommunication, Milingo, a former archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia, had met with the pope on Aug. 7 at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. Following this encounter, the threat of excommunication was suspended, according to a Vatican announcement.
Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican's press office, called the meeting "the beginning of a dialogue that one hopes will be able to lead to positive developments."
Maurizio Bisantis, an Italian Milingo supporter, who helped arrange the meeting, told Catholic News Service that the archbishop spent 45 minutes alone with the pontiff. They were then joined for another hour by other prelates, including Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith.
It was Ratzinger who had issued an ultimatum to Milingo threatening him with the severest form of excommunication if he did not end his "asserted matrimonial union" with Maria Sung and his association with Moon's Family Federation for World Peace and Unification by Aug. 20.
"We understand that prior to the meeting, Ratzinger sent the Holy Father a private letter listing the archbishop's alleged previous wrongdoings," the Rev. Schanker told United Press International. UPI however was unable to verify this claim.
Milingo had been in trouble with the Vatican over unauthorized exorcism and faith healing rites.
Quoting Vatican sources, KNA, a German Catholic wire service, reported Thursday that the Holy See had begun a "process of clarification that could be of long duration because complicated theological issues will have to be discussed."
KNA suggested as one solution that the Roman Catholic Church consecrate Milingo's marriage.
"But this would presuppose that he be formally relieved of his status as a cleric," the agency stated. According to several canonical lawyers, this frequently happens in the case of ordinary priests.
However, "it is the practice of the Holy See never to release bishops from their ordination vows," declared Father John Beal, who teaches canon law at Washington's Catholic University.
Milingo told a Rome news conference on Wednesday, "this time I am no longer single and I must consider another person, my wife, and her human rights. Also my wife must understand the church's reasons."
The Rev. Shanker, spokesman for Moon's Family Federation for world Peace and Unification, said, "The Rev. Moon believes that Archbishop Milingo has a mission to the Roman Catholic Church."
Schanker suggested that because of this, Moon could live with an arrangement by which Milingo stayed with his wife but severed all links with his organization.
According to Schanker, Milingo had breakfast with Moon on Sunday. "I then drove him and his wife to the airport. They flew to Barcelona, Spain, and then on to Milan, Italy, where they parted," said Schanker. "They have only spoken once by telephone since."
Shanker said that Milingo continued to Castel Gandolfo, while Maria Sung remained in Milan with acquaintances.
In Castel Gandolfo, Milingo showed up unannounced at the papal summer residence, Catholic News Service reported, although Schanker said that a "private encounter" had been arranged by the painter Alba Vitala.
According to the CNS report, Milango was met by Bishop Stanlislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's personal secretary. At that point, John Paul II met Milingo briefly to "greet him and ask him to pray" before the audience on the following day.
Sources in Rome told UPI Thursday the Vatican was "most concerned" about the possibility that Milingo might "illicitly though validly" ordain priest for a schismatic church linked to Moon.
"That's why there is a chance that if the archbishop agreed not to do that the Holy Father might show some flexibility," a Vatican insider suggested.
UPI is owned by News World Communications Inc., a media company founded by Moon.
ROME (Reuters) - Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo said Wednesday he was torn between his wife, his respect for sect leader Rev Sun Myung Moon and his loyalty to Pope John Paul II.
The 71-year-old Zambian, a controversial faith healer and exorcist, was in Rome to try to make amends with the Catholic Church, which he scandalized in May when he joined Moon's controversial Unification Church and married a bride chosen by Moon.
Contradicting himself often and becoming short with reporters at a news conference that bordered on the surreal, Milingo said his wife, a Korean acupuncturist, would come to Rome soon but it was not clear if she would meet the pope.
"I am no longer alone. I have to take another person into consideration, my wife, and her rights," he said, adding that he would consult her on his decision.
With his bishop's ring on his right hand and what appeared to be a wedding ring on his left, Milingo declined to answer a reporter's question on whether he had consummated his marriage. The answer could affect a solution to the strange, unprecedented dilemma into which he has thrown the Vatican.
Last month the Vatican read Milingo the religious riot act, telling him he risked excommunication if he did not leave his wife, sever links with Moon's church, and declare his fidelity to the pope and the Catholic Church's discipline of celibacy.
Excommunication is a total cut-off from the Church. In modern times it has been rare, particularly for high-ranking prelates.
DEADLINE SUSPENDED
The Vatican originally told Milingo he had until Aug. 20 to make a decision but said Wednesday the deadline had been suspended.
At the news conference, Milingo said the pope told him at a meeting Tuesday that "I have to reflect on my position in the Church, on what I have done."
Milingo spoke of his esteem for Moon, saying the Korean respected Catholicism. "The Reverend Moon knows it was not easy for me to get married," Milingo said.
Moon is hailed as the Messiah by his followers but has been strongly criticized in several countries.
Often appearing confused, Milingo told reporters: "I have never negated my obedience to the Holy Father."
He refused to be drawn on whether he felt his wedding was valid since the Church did not recognize it. "I belong to the Catholic Church, many people have faith in me and miss me," he said.
"I have to reflect as a child of the Catholic Church. I have to make an examination of conscience but even my wife has to be told about the position of the Church."
Milingo said he expected to meet the pope again this week.
Despite Milingo's trip to Rome, most observers believe his career in the Roman Catholic Church is over because of the spectacular way he joined the Unification Church in New York last May and married.
Vatican sources said at the time that the pope felt hurt by Milingo's actions, because the pontiff had often been lenient with him when others in the Church felt he should be disciplined for unauthorized faith healing and exorcism.
The Catholic Church has become scandalised by immorality, former Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo has charged.
Reacting to the Vatican's ultimatum last week, Milingo said celibacy which was a vital part of the Church's spiritual purity and power had become a facade. "Secret affairs and marriages, illegitimate children, rampant homosexuality, pedophilia and illicit sex have riddled the priesthood to the extent that the UN Commission on Human Rights has investigated the church for sexual abuse, and the western media is filled with stories of lawsuits and scandals surrounding the Church," Milingo said.
"From such hypocrisy, how can priests be the sanctifiers of the community?" Milingo said the Church was powerless to overcome the onslaught of divorce, adultery, and sexually transmitted diseases that plague society. "In my own native Zambia, the death rate is more than 4 times the birth rate due to AIDS," he said. Milingo said he married not out of mere personal satisfaction, weakness, temptation, secret and shame, but with God's blessing.
"How can I now leave my wife, whom God gave to me, with whom I have now begun conjugal life, and to whom I have pledged fidelity before Him?" he asked. Milingo said it was time for the Church to take the same step. Milingo said he was the happiest and most blessed of men before God. "My story is simple.
As a boy tending cattle in my native Africa, God called me to his service, and drew me to the bosom of my Mother, the Catholic Church. I served her with sincerity, and sought to love God by loving people. In 1974, God gave me a gift, and commissioned me as the Lord had commissioned His disciples: to heal the sick, cast out devils, and preach the Gospel [Luke 9:2]. I offered my gift to my Church and her flock," Milingo said. "Many people eagerly responded, receiving this spiritual gift from God. But my Church rejected it, and tried her best to bind and restrict me." Milingo complained that when Africans expressed their love for Jesus through their own cultural forms, just as Europeans had long done through theirs, the Church leaders grew to mistrust them.
"They called me a 'witch doctor' and branded the people's response as 'voodoo'. I was scandalised with false charges and wild rumours, and though each was disproved one-by-one, I was exiled to Rome," Milingo said. "They feared I would only be trouble in Africa." And the BBC reports that Milingo,who had been threatened with excommunication for marrying a Korean woman at a "Moonie" mass wedding, has been received by Pope John Paul. The meeting at the Pope's summer residence at Castelgandolfo, near Rome, took place in strict secrecy.
Afterwards, the Vatican put out a cautious statement to the effect that a dialogue had begun with the Archbishop which might hopefully lead to positive developments. A spokesman for Milingo said he had sought the papal audience to explain his belief that priests should be allowed to marry and have families.
"He has begun conjugal life," Reverend Phillip Schanker said in a telephone interview with Associated Press from Washington D.C. "He has come to understand that all the blessings of God were meant to be given through the family."
Milingo's recent marriage to a South Korean acupuncturist at a mass wedding in New York was arranged by the Moonies, an American religious sect run by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
News of the wedding ceremony upset the Vatican, which has given the archbishop until 20 August to renounce his marriage, publicly promise to remain celibate, leave the Moonies and re-affirm his allegiance to the Pope. Otherwise Milingo will be formally excommunicated. Milingo, who is 71 years old, has been at the centre of controversy for nearly 20 years.
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has suspended its threat to excommunicate an archbishop who defected from the Roman Catholic church to marry.
Emmanuel Milingo, 71, joined the controversial sect of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon who conducted his wedding ceremony last May in New York.
The announcement came after Pope John Paul II received Milingo at the papal summer residence at Castelgandolfo, south-east of Rome, for a meeting the Vatican hoped could "lead to positive developments."
Zambian-born Milingo had sought an audience with the pope in an attempt to explain his beliefs that priests should be allowed to marry and have families, said The Associated Press.
The meeting took place just two weeks before an August 20 deadline for Milingo to publicly return to the Catholic fold, renounce Moon's sect and leave his wife or else face excommunication -- a total severance from the church.
The Catholic Church has strict celibacy rules for its clergy, who are not allowed to marry.
Moon chose Milingo's bride for him -- 43-year old Maria Sung, an acupuncturist from south Korea. They were married on May 27 in a group ceremony at a New York hotel.
After his marriage, the archbishop asked to be released from his vow of celibacy.
But according to his official Web site and his spokesman, the Reverend Phillip Schanker, Milingo consummated the marriage before hearing from the Vatican.
Milingo has a history of controversy with the Catholic authorities.
When he was archbishop of Zambia's capital city Lusaka, the Vatican objected to his faith healing techniques and exorcisms, prompting his resignation in 1983.
Milingo was then brought to Rome as an officer in the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, but continued public healing and exorcism. He was released from the post last year.
Castelgandolfo - Monsignor Milingo, a sorpresa, è entrato ieri sera nel palazzo papale di Castelgandolfo e, secondo i suoi collaboratori, ha avuto un colloquio di circa mezz'ora con Karol Wojtyla alla presenza del segretario del pontefice, Stanislao Dziwisz. «Bisogna pregare - ha detto Emmanuel Milingo uscendo dal palazzo dove Giovanni Paolo II trascorre l'ultima parte delle sue vacanze - tutti hanno mentito». Milingo potrebbe avere un secondo colloquio col Papa oggi o domani.
Il colpo di scena nella vicenda dell'ottantunenne vescovo - esorcista africano - che il 27 maggio scorso a New York si era unito in matrimonio col rito della setta del reverendo Moon a una donna coreana di 43 anni, Maria Sung - avviene a due settimane dalla scandenza dell'ultimatum fissato dal Vaticano. Il 20 agosto - data indicata dal cardinale Ratzinger - è l'ultimo giorno utile per una marcia indietro da parte di Milingo prima della scomunica. Milingo però da Washington aveva fatto sapere di «voler rimanere nella Chiesa ed essere accettato come un arcivescovo sposato». Il vescovo ribelle, infatti, contesta il celibato obbligatorio ma non ha mai manifestato alcuna volontà di divorziare dal Vaticano. «Non è mia intenzione rompere con la Chiesa cattolica - ha detto e ripetuto Milingo - l'unificazione del sacramento del sacerdozio con quello del matrimonio rafforzerà e rinnoverà entrambi».
Nei mesi scorsi i suoi portavoce hanno dato notizia di continue richieste del vescovo alla Santa Sede per ottenere udienza dal Papa. Soltanto dopo le nozze blasfeme a New York, il Vaticano ha confermato di aver ricevuto la richiesta di Milingo per un incontro con il Pontefice. Ma dalla Santa Sede si è fatto sapere di aver provato a rintracciare il vescovo di Lusaka ma senza successo.
Ieri invece l'arrivo improvviso a Castelgandolfo, dopo un tour de force aereo Stati UnitiMilanoRoma. L'arcivescovo di Lusaka si è presentato al portone del palazzo papale poco dopo le otto di sera ed è entrato in compagnia di una donna, una pittrice sua devota nota nei giri artistici come Vitalba. Ne è uscito verso le nove e mezzo e dopo aver ottenuto - a detta degli amici che lo avevano accompagnato - un colloquio di circa mezz'ora col Papa.
I portavoce del Vaticano non confermano né smentiscono l'incontro. I collaboratori di Milingo sostengono che il vescovo africano si è detto pronto a riconoscere gli sbagli commessi e disposto agli atti di sottomissione necessari a evitare la scomunica.
L'ordine del Vaticano al vescovo ribelle è di «manifestare obbedienza al Papa con un gesto chiaro e inequivocabile».
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