African Archbishop Promises To Obey Pope And Leave New Wife

Jet, Sept 3, 2001

Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, whose marriage earlier this year scandalized the Vatican, is now leaving his new wife and returning to the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican said.

This recent announcement is the latest chapter in ongoing discord between the charismatic African cleric and the Vatican that came to a head in May. It was during this time that Archbishop Milingo ignored his celibacy vow and married Maria Sung, a 43-year-old South Korean physician, in a mass ceremony conducted by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in New York City (JET, June 18).

In July, the Vatican told Archbishop Milingo that he would be excommunicated unless he agreed to: "(a) leave Maria Sung, (b) sever all links with the sect, Family Federation For World Peace and Unification, (c) declare publicly his fidelity to the doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline of celibacy and to manifest his obedience to the Supreme Pontiff by a clear and unequivocal act."

In an apparent attempt to make amends with the Vatican the archbishop met with the Pope to explain his reasons for getting married. Following the meeting Milingo went into seclusion.

At JET press time, the Vatican had not disclosed the archbishop's whereabouts, saying only that he is on a spiritual retreat and that he should be left alone to pray.

The papal headquarters in Rome recently released a brief letter stating that Archbishop Milingo, 71, wrote to Pope John Paul II following his meeting at the Vatican and announced his return to Church doctrine.

The letter said that the archbishop decided to recommit his life "in the Catholic church with all my heart, renouncing my living together with Maria Sung and my relationship with the Rev. Moon and the Family Federation for World Peace."

In the past the archbishop has said that celibacy is poisoning the priesthood and that God's blessings were meant to be given through the family.

Archbishop Milingo's new wife, Maria Sung, who had not seen her husband for nearly a week, held a press conference in Rome and told reporters that she feared the Vatican was holding her husband as a prisoner against his will.

The Vatican released the letter addressed to the Pope to refute suggestions made by Sung that the church had fabricated the letter or pressured Milingo to write it.

A few hours prior to the letter's release, Sung said that she had begun fasting to force officials to reunite her with her husband. She stated that she would refuse food "until he is free to me or until I die."

In a second press conference Sung charged, "What the Vatican has said until now has been all lies. Even if he telephones me and tolls me he wants to leave me, I still won't believe it because I'm sure he will have been drugged."

Recently Sung suggested that she may be pregnant, but has said she is not worried about possible health risks from her fast and will only drink water.

According to the New York TimeS, the handwritten letter from Archbishop Milingo said he had heard the Pope's call to come back to the Catholic Church partly as "a paternal order to live out my faithfulness and obedience to you, Christ's representative on earth.... I am your humble and obedient servant."