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“Celibacy Does Not Sanctify The Priesthood”- Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo on his travails with the Vatican and the case for Married Priests
By Ajong Mbapndah L
Few are those who in recent times have ruffled the conservative cocoon structure of the Catholic Church the way he has done. Ordained in 1969 as Archbishop of Lusaka Zambia by Pope Paul VI Archbishop Emmanuel’s Milingo never lasted for long. His strong personality, charisma, and most especially his healing powers made him the centre of great controversy within the Catholic Church. As reputation soared as an exorcist and spiritual healer in the 70s so to was the discomfort of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Archbishop Milingo says some in the Vatican thought his healing powers were some form of African mysticism and suspected him of designs to start his own church.
If recalling him to Rome in 1983 was considered a means of containing him, it only proved counter productive. Moving to Rome only earned global fame for the healing ministry of Archbishop Milingo. As if this face off with the Vatican was not enough, Archbishop Milingo jolted the Vatican and the Catholic Church with his marriage to Maria Sung of Korean origin. Celibacy Archbishop Milingo tells PAV Managing Editor Ajong Mbapndah L does not sanctify the priesthood. Archbishop Milingo has continued to ordain lay priests and Bishops and was recently stripped of his priestly functions in the Catholic Church, a decision Archbishop Milingo brushes off as inconsequential to him. He still prays the rosary every day and prays for the Pope and holds no grudges at all against the Vatican. With extraordinary intellectual acumen, Archbishop Milingo has continued to marshall great logic laced with bible quotations to defend actions which almost made him an outcast within the Catholic Church, an Institution he continues to identify with. In far away South Korea where he lives with his wife, Archbishop Milingo after several attempts accepted to answer questions from PAV’s Ajong Mbapndah L on his beefs with the Vatican, his healing ministry, crusade for married Priests and more.
PAV We certainly will have more questions to this issue later but we start by asking if we are right or better still is it right to continue calling you Archbishop considering a recent Vatican decision that dismissed you from the clerical state?
Archbishop Milingo: I am still Archbishop. The Vatican excommunication and laicization is the archaic language of the Vatican, which disturbs only those who take the Vatican as a God. Here are the answers from God:
Milingo: “My Living God, what next? They have said that I am excommunicated. The Vatican has sent word throughout the world.”
God’s answer: “Zacabe”, which means “NONSENSE.” The Lord stopped on “nonsense,” with no further comments.
PAV: For many who are not conversant with Canon Law what exactly did the decision mean and how did Archbishop Milingo receive it?
Archbishop Milingo: On laicization: Milingo: “My Living God, the Vatican has
declared that I have nothing to do now with all that is priestly in me.”
God’s answer: “Do not give in, not even an inch.” I have no remorse. I have no grudge against the Vatican. I say my breviary, my three Rosaries, and do celebrate Mass every day. I offer a full rosary for the Pope every day. I have no quarrel with the Vatican.
PAV:In 1969 you were consecrated Bishop of the Archdiocese of Lusaka by Pope Paul V1 in reminiscence what would you cite as some of the achievements you registered in the 14 years that you served in that capacity?
Archbishop Milingo: On 21st December, 2009, in Spain the liberal churches elected me Patriarch. In Brazzaville on 23rd December, they also elected me Patriarch. On 3rd February, the Catholic Apostolic Missionary Evangelization Church, with 8 bishops annexed themselves to our International Prelature, in Brazil. Pope Paul 6 was a great Pope, not because he consecrated me, but because he lived in the period of transition from Vatican 1 to Vatican 2. It was not easy for him. He had called me to Rome to warn me not to be outspoken in politics. He said: “Avoid to create antagonism between the church and state.” It means that the reports of the Apostolic Nuncio, the diplomatic representative of the Pope to the Government of Zambia had sent him a word on the matter. I was not accused of saying something against the government, but that there are better ways of saying the truth, without offending the listeners.
PAV: How would Archbishop Milingo describe the role of the Catholic Church in African politics from the colonial era when you were ordained Priest to the independence and post independence eras?
Archbishop Milingo: I have to avoid being blatant. We Africans have not gained from our independence. We are now under harder masters, our own African Presidents. They have no human hearts. We can count them on our fingers; those we believe were with their people: Dr Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Mandela of South Africa, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Jomo Kenyata of Kenya. Forgive me for my ignorance of West Africa. However, we are subject to poverty, due to corruption. The churches fear imprisonment and any form of punishment from the African governments. In other words persecution.
PAV: What kind of relationship did you have with President Kenneth Kaunda and the political class in Zambia?
Archbishop Milingo: I had no confrontation with President Kaunda. From the warning of Pope Paul 6, I obeyed, by seeing to it that I walk on tip-toes, as if I am walking on a broken glass pavement. Mine was a vocation to represent the poor the voiceless of Zambia and Africa.
PAV: By the late 70s you had become famous as an exorcist and powerful spiritual healer but this generated a lot of controversy within the church why so?
Archbishop Milingo: It was a great revelation to me, when I received an order from God: “Go, and preach the Gospel.” I consulted the Bible to understand my mission: “He summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and cure all kinds of disease and all kind of illness.” (Matt. 10: 1- 5)The main mission, which I had to bring to the people, was “Preaching the Gospel.” I literally did all that is said by Jesus: “To preach the Gospel, cast out devils, and heal the sick.” The Roman Catholic Church said I was using African animism. They were afraid that I was going to start my own church.
PAV: Archbishop Milingo was recalled to Rome in 1983 and your healing masses continued through out Europe, why was it alright for you to continue with your healing masses there when it was considered anathema for you to render the same services to your African brethren?
Archbishop Milingo: In Europe I was first on trial, as to whether my gifts were divine, since the Vatican had made people believe that it was mere African spiritism, like that of a medium. My preaching and healing gifts stood the test even in Europe, U.S.A, Australia, Canada, Japan, etc
PAV: Is it true that the more successful your healing masses became the more your freedom to celebrate mass was curtailed? What relation was there between celebrating mass and the healing powers you had?
Archbishop Milingo: They could not succeed to stop me, and the multitudes to come to my Masses. So they said that I should not say Mass in Churches without permission of a local Bishop. So the people, who needed my services, organized celebrations in hotels, and Public workshops.
PAV: In the face of all you have been through with the Vatican does Archbishop Milingo still have the same healing powers that made him famous in the 70s and 80s?
Archbishop Milingo: Archbishop Milingo has the same healing powers, which he had from 1973. Under one condition that I keep my spiritual balance. Never to have a grudge against anyone, when I am dedicating myself to praying for others. God cannot work in an angry soul against God Himself, and the neighbor, everyone is my brother. Healing powers cannot work to heal a brother, while you have a grudge against another brother of yours. So before I pray, I must see to it that I don’t hate anybody. God does not listen to a praying soul which is full of discrimination.
As long as I live, I must see to it that I give freedom to every human being to have access to my heart, my loving heart. This is how I have kept the healing powers I am now able to heal through praying on the telephone, or blessing an e-mail, I am sending to the sick. They have given testimony that they are healed.
PAV: Around 2001 you jolted the Catholic Church with a public call for the end of mandatory celibacy. What prompted the call considering that you not only took the vow but upheld it for several decades?
Archbishop Milingo: I got a message from the Blessed Virgin Mary, through a visionary: “Do all you can call back to the pastoral field my married priests, who are the front-line soldiers in the battle against evil in the world.”
The sufferings of the married priests, how they have been treated when they decided to marry this unfair treatment they received was the argument that the Blessed Virgin Mary could not tolerate. Moreover the Catholic Church calls itself a mother, but the hard means to treat a priest who has failed to keep celibacy have been inhuman. It was therefore necessary, that one like me should publicly marry, and have courage to say that imposing celibacy on priests is not right. All the books I have ready, who rely on history of priesthood, have never found any council of the church, from 300 up to Vatican 2, no unanimous vote on obligatory celibacy. Some have dared write that obligatory celibacy is surrounded with lies, hiding the real truth, that is, to safeguard the properties which had been going to the family of a deceased priest. Not marrying will grant that the church does not lose anything. They keep the fruits of the late priest’s work.
PAV: Your rhetoric was matched with action when you got married to Maria Sung, how did you two meet and how long had the Archbishop known his bride?
Archbishop Milingo: The system to marry carried out in the unification church is called “Matching.” That is Rev. Moon holds two photos, one of a man and the other of a woman. He looks at them, then follows the decision, either to say they can be a good couple, or no. Only then is left to them to reject each other, or to accept the other. I accepted the system, because my two brothers were advised by our parents to marry their distant cousins. It is a suggestion, confirmed by the two individuals. For me it was a vocation to embark on a mission, of which I did not know to what extent it would take me. In this method nobody talks about marrying the other, because there is no fiancée business.
PAV: A peculiarity of the marriage was that it was celebrated by Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church; may we know the reason for this?
Archbishop Milingo: Rev. Moon matched us, and we talked together and accepted each other. Myself not knowing the extent of my mission for married priests, I saw in this proposal to enable me to be equal to the married priests, and then speak their language. I saw the consequences of my action, influencing the whole world, as if to say: “It is overdue that obligatory celibacy should be looked into: “There is no doubt at all that I am right, though due to the pride of the Catholic Church, they don’t want to admit the fact. But we are winning ground. The Swiss Episcopal Conference have decided on their own that they will ordain married men. The Pastoral council of the Johannesburg, South-Africa, Diocese, opted for married priests. While Poland, eight hundred priests decided to marry. To-day, Ireland, the real Catholic Sanctuary of faith, after the research, the Murphy research, found the sexual abuses by priests at a very high rate. To the shock of three Bishops, who could not stand such findings in their dioceses, they resigned, because they were shocked.
Celibacy is only genuine, if it is proved to be a gift from God, as a special Charism. Jesus said it very clearly, and so did St. Paul.
PAV: What is the situation of your marriage with Maria Sung today?
Archbishop Milingo: We are a happy couple. We work together with zeal for the glory of God. She is a true daughter of the unification church. Just as I am a Catholic from toe to the hair of my head. We never discuss religion. She receives communion because she believes in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Rev. Moon helps us to realize the mission we have been given by God. As we go on, we have doors opening up for our mission, such as Bishops with their dioceses asking to accept them to work with us. This gives us a lot of encouragement.
PAV: Was the brief renunciation of your marriage and return to the Catholic fold a result of pressure or the realization that you had done something against the norms of the Catholic Church?
Archbishop Milingo: I gave in for the sake of obedience, I was sent to Argentina to expiate for my sin, so they said, and the great scandal I committed in the Catholic Church. Almost one full year, I was away from Rome. I was living in a community of four, two Bishops and two priests. These were my only companions. From time to time I was taken to the Focolarini to bigger community. But not exposed to journalists, or to those who might have thought that they found a treasure by speaking to me, and put the story to the journalists. So I lead an isolated life, as a punishment. My wife suffered tremendously, and appealed to the organization of human rights. Together with my family they contacted me in Argentina, to tell them that I was alive.
When I returned, the five years were a hell to me. Because I was kept under the surveillance of body guards. This was a hard life for me. But after those five years, I still felt that my new way was marriage. So I decided to go back to my wife. This is the time that the Blessed Virgin Mary confirmed my mission for married priests, “The frontline soldiers for the battle for the salvation of souls.”
PAV: Archbishop Milingo heads a movement known as Married Priests now, may we know the state of its membership and representation across the world?
Archbishop Milingo: International Married Priests’ Now Prelature. This was founded in New Jersey, in U.S.A. in 2006. It was not easy to convince the married priests that our efforts could move the Vatican. Though in the mind of the people “Vatican and church” are one. It is a wrong concept. The presentation of the Vatican as a supreme power on earth does not represent the Catholic Church. It is a pure political state, with rights as any other civil power in the world. Except that they have attached to this political power, the papacy, which cannot be judged by any earthly power. Neither is the Vatican divine power. It is inherited from the ambition of the Roman Empire to conquer the whole world and submit it to the Roman Empire, founded by Emperor Constantine. The Vatican state is a very small state, which was trimmed in 1870 by the Italian revolution of Garibaldi, who united Italy, and claimed the possession of Italian land appropriated by the Vatican. Pope Pius 9 carried the burden of seeing the Vatican states being dwindled, though without losing its Political Power. Today the Vatican State as an earthly power has its political representatives everywhere in the world. These don’t necessarily represent the Catholic Church. They rather represent the interests of the Vatican state, with the spirit of Conquest, not for the Kingdom of God, but for the secular state of the Vatican.
PAV: How receptive have Africans in particular been to the philosophy of the movement?
Archbishop Milingo: My fellow Africans to my philosophy of married priests. The majority of my fellow Africans are mesmerized by the power of the Roman Catholic Church. They are like a blind man locked in a house without a door. 500 years of colonialism is not easy to wash away. We have lived the air of colonialism, not only on the part of church, but still worse when our chiefs were the first to be baptized in order to have access to all of us. Like the story of Esau in the bible, we were sold for exchange of salt, soap, or any other goods which the white man brought to us. We then undervalued all that we had had up till then.
The African married priests, may they forgive me, the voice of the Vatican is for them the voice of God. But if they look into the history of the Roman Catholic Church, it has always been the boiling pot, wars from within, soliciting wars with others, and murder has been part of the game of the Vatican. Remember Pope John Paul 1. And Pope John Paul 2. The fear therefore that the African Church has of the Vatican, is not a proper attitude, between a spiritual father and a son. It is a love of fear. It is a reverence and fear of what the Vatican can do to you, and you will have no one to defend you.
The poor married priests, shrunken into their skins, as they were deprived of pastoral work, left without a piece of bread. Thrown on the road to fend for themselves, having nowhere to refer to, in order to make an appeal for justice. If you are condemned by the Vatican, know that you have been condemned by the earthly God. No way out for you. So the married priests, like snails they withdrew their humanity in their skin scabbards. They have preferred to die in silence. They have had enough of the Vatican, their earthly God. They think that nobody can solve their problems except their earthy God, the Vatican.
PAV: The Vatican says the Church does not recognize the Married Bishops and Priests ordained by you, so what is their status and what congregations do they celebrate mass?
Archbishop Milingo: Priests-Bishops ordained by Milingo. If the Vatican using secular power, I have nothing to do with them. If excommunication and laicization is a way to show off how they can appropriate a human being, I, as an individual, ordained priest and consecrated Bishop, do not fall under their jurisdiction if they ordained me in their name, which is erroneous; certainly I would easily accept what they say. If they were only instrumental to ordain me in the name of God, who called me and waited for “my yes,” so only God is rightly my judge, not human powers. The Angel had to wait for the Yes of Mary. After the Yes of Mary, then he went back to God to announce the great “Yes,” of Mary. I responded to God, through the instrumentality of the church. But if the church deviates from the truth, by making a show of power, reducing so many priests into nothings, and doing it without even a human heart, then I don’t need to be moved, when they level against me all sorts of church condemnations. I am not in the least moved, nor saddened. To excommunication the Lord answered: “Nonsense.”
To the laicization the Lord answered: “Don’t give in, not even an inch.”
The conclusion is that all my actions as a priest or as a Bishop are valid and accepted by God. If they know how to speak to God, they will get the same answers. Those married priests who accepted our movement are free, liberated from all Vatican sanctions.
PAV: Could this eventuality lead to the kind of split that led to the formation of the Anglican Church?
Archbishop Milingo: We Catholic married priests have no ambition to split from the Catholic Church. We are the original Catholic Church of the married Apostles, the original foundations of the true and real Catholic Church. If the celibate Roman Catholic Church would accept the fact that they are merely a charism in the Catholic Church, we shall accept them. But they must not make many believe that it is celibacy which sanctifies priesthood. Priesthood is the fountain of spirituality and is “Holy” by nature.
PAV: Looking at the Catholic Church that you served for so many decades, has this whole concept of celibacy for the clergy been a myth or reality?
Archbishop Milingo: The law of celibacy remains a human law, call it a precept, there is nothing of a divine law in it. Neither does it qualify as founded on a dogma, nor did Jesus impose it on His Apostles. The concept of celibacy permeating the 1,000 years of church existence, because it was not there at the beginning of the church, when 39 Popes were married, sometimes even proposing their own children to be Popes, it is a pitiful story of the Roman Catholic Church. Still worse to read the hideous sins committed by the so called presumed celibate priests. So imposed celibacy has been the shame of the Roman Catholic Church.
PAV:You were ordained by Paul V1, worked with Popes John Paul 1, John Paul 2 and Pope Benedict V1, how will you assess the evolution or State of relations between Africa and the Vatican under these leaders?
Archbishop Milingo: I don’t want to scandalize you. I love the Vatican. But I can’t stand the plastering of faith to the poor Africans, who have received the Catholic doctrine through very poor instruments. The fact is that from ordinary life, an African Christian has no ambition to be holy. But to be holy is the vocation of every Christian. It is as well very easy, if the missionaries learnt how to have access to the heart and mind of an African. The Africans are religious by nature. I gave you the example of the life of a fish, which suffocates and dies, as you take it out of water. So is man without air, he dies of suffocation. But an African has been left with his gods, and believes in witch-craft, which is to do something bad to one’s enemy. But these Christians still today recite the Our Father, why not tell them that they cannot recite the “Our Father,” if they don’t forgive their neighbor. Look at the mess made by our African presidents, most of them coming from Catholic schools. They are coming from Catholic schools. They are thieves, womanizers, and murderers.
PAV: In its present configuration, what are the prospects of an African serving as Pope someday?
Archbishop Milingo: African Pope! A dream, building castles in Spain
PAV: On hindsight are there some things you did in the past that you would have done differently today?
Archbishop Milingo: On some things I did when I was young. I can’t believe that I did them. I shudder and pity my young mind. But I always aimed high in my life.
PAV: We understand that in March, precisely on the 27 Archbishop Milingo will be enthroned as Patriarch of Africa, who is enthroning the Archbishop and what will be your duties after the enthronement?
Archbishop Milingo: There is Archbishop of the Gallican Church, who will be confirmed by the other Bishops, and be given a mandate to enthrone me. Duties still to be presented.
PAV: We end by asking for your assessment on the state of Africa today as most of its countries hit fifty years of independence.
Archbishop Milingo: Even if we celebrate fifty years of African Independence, we have suffered a lot more from our African Presidents. If only they could be human. But I strongly suggest that prayers and ceremonies for appeasing the dead in every country should be offered. Those who have been murdered unjustly, through civil wars are angry with us the living. It is true that some of us did not physically contribute to their death, one way or another should have been found to either pray for the prevention of the civil wars, or belonging to a tribe, which was soliciting the war, we should have word to object to what was happening, or still is happening to-day. I am very affected by the situation of Africa. Only God knows whatever I could do, for the fact that I have been taken away from the continent now over a quarter of a century.
PAV: Archbishop we wish you well in all your endeavors and thanks very much for talking to Pan African Visions
Archbishop Milingo: The pleasure is mind and blessings for your mission