c. 2006 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, the renegade Zambian cleric who was excommunicated for ordaining four bishops without Vatican approval, said Wednesday (Sept. 26) that he will continue to function as an archbishop regardless of what the Vatican says.
Milingo, who has angered church officials with his on-again, off-again marriage to a member of the Unification Church, called on Pope Benedict XVI to rescind the ruling and to recall into service all the married priests disowned by the church.
“Who said I’m excommunicated?” Milingo joked at a news conference while flanked by the men he consecrated as bishops Sunday at a breakaway Catholic church in Washington.
The Vatican on Tuesday said Milingo, 76, had placed himself in a state of automatic excommunication by ordaining the bishops. The Holy See indicated it had lost patience with Milingo’s “progressive, open break in communion with the Church.”
The four men ordained as bishops _ George Stallings of Washington, Peter Paul Brennan of New York, Patrick Trujillo of Newark, N.J., and Joseph Gouthro of Las Vegas _ were also excommunicated, according to the Vatican.
Milingo, in a statement read by Brennan at Stallings’ Capitol Hill church, said he received the authority to consecrate bishops when he was consecrated as a bishop by Pope Paul VI in 1969.
Milingo called the requirement of celibacy for priests in the Church a man-made doctrine that did not exist in the early church.
“(The apostles) set up spiritual leaders in the church communities by praying and laying hands on them,” Milingo’s statement read. “They did not look for mandates but for the needs of the communities. I have done the same thing.”
The announcement that Milingo and his bishops plan to continue their ministry threatens to open up a rare schism in the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church that could lock the Vatican in a protracted struggle with the splinter group.
As a bishop, Milingo technically has the authority to ordain other bishops. But under church rules, only bishops authorized by the pope are considered bishops in good standing.
The four consecrations are technically “valid” even if they are not “licit,” according to the Rev. Philip Goyret, a professor of dogmatic theology with expertise in canon law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
That means the Vatican cannot deny the inherent authority of the newly installed bishops _ even if they do not consider them in formal communion with Pope Benedict XVI.
Precedence for such scenarios include the Catholic-Orthodox split in 1054 and the schism between the traditionalist followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who broke with Rome in 1988, after consecrating four priests as bishops in the Society of Pius X.
“Episcopal consecrations carried out without the orders or consensus of the pontiff are valid,” Goyret said.
Milingo said he would remain in Washington and campaign to change the church’s rules against married priests. Milingo said there are almost 25,000 married former priests in the U.S. who are not being called into service.
Stallings, pastor of Imani Temple, where Milingo ordained the bishops and held his press conference, said Milingo’s actions were an opportunity for Catholics to decide whether married priests should be a part of the church.
“We are not stepping outside of the Roman Catholic Church,” said Stallings. “We are working to appease all Catholics in the United States and worldwide to let us know your desire. Do you wish for there to be a married priesthood?”
Stallings, who was first excommunicated by the church in 1990, said he felt “liberated” by the Vatican pronouncement this week.
“This is my second time,” he said. “If I live longer, I might get three or four more down the line.”
_ Stacy Meichtry contributed to this story from Rome.
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