Seoul Archdiocese has cautioned Catholics against meeting or consulting with an excommunicated African archbishop residing in South Korea.Lay Catholics are to consult with their parish priests if they are invited to any meeting with Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, former archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia, the Sept. 9 archdiocesan Sunday bulletin advised.
"Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who married a member of the Unification Church and caused a scandal, was excommunicated by the Vatican," the bulletin said.
It pointed out that the excommunicated archbishop is promoting his U.S.-based Married Priests Now movement in South Korea. The movement that he founded in July 2006 and heads advocates that the Roman Catholic Church allow married priests in active ministry. Under Church law, Roman Catholic priests must remain unmarried and are bound to celibacy.
Father Peter Pai Young-ho, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, told UCA News Sept. 12 that "since Milingo is excommunicated, he has no authority to gather former Catholic priests or facilitate their Catholic priestly ministry."
Two days after Archbishop Milingo ordained four bishops without papal approval on Sept. 24, 2006, the Vatican declared that all five incurred automatic excommunication because of the illicit act.
Father Pai said the excommunicated archbishop fraternizes with Catholics and visits Catholic institutions as though he still holds episcopal office. "It was reported that he has shown himself in Catholic archbishop's attire and held prayer meetings with local Catholics in several shrines in the country," the church official reported.
"The shrine authorities, who did not recognize him, welcomed him, thinking he was a foreign archbishop visiting Korea," Father Pai added.
He said the bishops' conference, concerned over such occurrences, also issued a message last month warning dioceses in the country to be wary. That message stressed that Archbishop Milingo has no authority to conduct activities on behalf of the Catholic Church.
Kim Jin-choon, president of Cheongshim Graduate School of Theology, run by the Unification movement, told UCA News Sept. 12 that the former prelate entered the country in January and has been living here with his wife, a former Catholic." The movement is the successor to the Unification Church founded by Reverend Moon Sun-myung.
Kim said he understands the Catholic Church's position against the former prelate, but argues that the Catholic Church does not "fully understand" Archbishop Milingo's argument to allow priests to be married.
The Unification theology school held an "International Symposium on Catholicism Today" in June at their premises in Gapyeong, 55 kilometers (about 35 miles) northeast of Seoul, at which Archbishop Milingo repeated his argument for married priests, according to Kim.
Acknowledging that the Married Priests Now movement has no Korean members, he remarked: "My foreign friends often tell me the Korean Catholic Church is relatively stable and exemplary, with little trouble."
Archbishop Milingo, now 77, married South Korean Maria Sung in 2001 at a mass Unification movement marriage ceremony. Rev. Moon, who founded the Unification Church in South Korea in 1954, presided. The church proclaimed him as the messiah who is completing the salvation Jesus Christ failed to accomplish.
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