Missionaries, Moon, Milingo, and Maria....

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Pope Benedict XVI and his new Vatican team have finally had enough of 76-year-old ex-Archbishop of Luzaka, Zambia: Emmanuel Milingo. Four days after he ordained four married men as bishops, the no-nonsense German Pope let the gavel down and drew the curtain.  And so ended a long-running saga that a novelist could not have cooked up.

Milingo was the popular Catholic archbishop in Lusaka, Zambia. How did he end up in Vatican, left to marry a Moonie bride, and then back to his apostolate?

It all began in the early 1980s, when white European missionaries — probably jealous of immensely popular charismatic prayer/healing ministry — complained to the Vatican that Archbishop Milingo borrowed his exorcisms and healings from witch doctors. The Vatican send the Bishop of Nairobi to investigate

Thereafter, in 1983, the Vatican removed him from the Archbishopric in Zambia in 1983, an unheard-of move in recent church history. They brought him to the Vatican and sent him to all sorts of wacko psycho tests.

In Rome, Milingo’s flock followed him. In fact, he became even more popular. In the year 2000, the Vatican issued new guidelines on exorcism in an effort to keep Milingo in Europe. Mean-while, the gains of having the flock in Zambia was lost to Africa.

The archbishop opened up another front; he claimed that celibacy was poisoning the Catholic church. He then went on and married a woman he had never met before Moon in May 2001. In a group ceremony in New York, USA. The ceremony is led by the Reverend Sun Myung. The Moonie Mrs. Milingo — Maria Sung, a South Korean doctor specializing in acupuncture — who was recommended to him by Rev. Moon days before the wedding.

The Vatican was very furious, which threatened to excommunicate Milingo. But wait: what about his numerous followers. The Vatican put on its thinking cap and reached to Milingo.

Archbishop Milingo married a Moonie bride.

In August 2001, the Pope had a personal meeting with Archbishop Milingo. Thereafter, the Archbishop renounced and his marriage and wished his wife the best.

Ms Sung was even more furious than the Vatican ever was. He prayed them to let the husband go, and even went on a hunger strike outside the Vatican. She spoke with whomever would listen and even claimed that the Catholic Church had brainwashed her husband into ending the marriage of three months and into returning to his religious life.

The Church fired back. They accused Reverend Moon’s Unification Church of using the so-called marriage and the aftermath hullabaloo to embarrass up the Catholic Church.

December 2002, controversial Archbishop Milingo emerged again on the headlines. This time he was headed home to Zambia. There were speculations that he would reunite with the Korean doctor Maria Sung, the Moonie he is still married to and who lives in Lusaka.

After arriving in Lusaka, Zambia, Archbishop Milingo told the media that the relationship with Dr. Maria Sung was definitely over. It is unlikely that Milingo will avoid the woman, who rightly believes that she has a legal marriage and that someone or people were keeping her 72-year-old husband away from her. She arrived a few months ago and quickly dominated headlines there with her tears and pleas for her husband to take her back.

Archbishop Milingo was in Zambia to for the funeral of his sister, in the eastern town of Chipata; she died while he was doing a year-long spiritual retreat in Argentina.

In November, Milingo celebrated his first public mass in Italy, since he renounced his marriage and was reabsorbed into the church. In Zambia, he will return to the Zambian fold. The ceremony is expected to be well-attended by thousands of his dedicated followers.

This is exactly what the Catholic Church is afraid will happen, if Milingo leaves the Church and starts his own setup. His “spectacular and sometimes frenzied faith healings and exorcisms of evil spirits” are very popular in Africa and amongst many Europeans and Americans.

© MOE