By Oscar Obonyo
The Standard
June 25, 2009
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144017884&cid=4
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| Bishop Daniel Kasomo and his wife Maryanne after he was appointed to head the Married Priests Now movement. |
He has become the face of the movement countering the Catholic Church doctrine on celibacy for priests.
Zambian breakaway archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo is back challenging the strict doctrine of a church that has excommunicated him.
Milingo is now hitting the church where it hurts by enticing other disenchanted clergymen to marry and join his ‘Married Priests Now’ movement.
Milingo who sensationally rocked the Catholic order when he married his Korean wife in 2001, is in Kenya where he has been holding gatherings with priests who have followed in his footsteps.
He may have had an intimate encounter with women late in life, but now, and in his words, the controversial Zambian prelate says he adores and values women.
Unfair Treatment
The 79-year-old bishop is particularly enraged by what he calls the Roman Catholic Church’s unfair treatment of women.
"A woman is defined by the church as a sex object that is a threat to the human race. But this is very wrong. Women are also human beings who are kind and very loveable individuals," a furious Milingo thundered at the Sasamotor Centre in Karen, Nairobi, where The Standard caught up with him yesterday.
His audience was made up of a handful of priests who have ditched their celibacy vows and married as well as their wives and children, whom they had been living with in secrecy.
Milingo was accompanied by his Korean wife, Maria Sung, whom he held close and kept referring to in fond words.
Simply put, Milingo does not comprehend why a church, or anyone for that matter, would demonise such ‘humble, harmless and fun-loving priests who chose to enter a marriage relationship’.
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| Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo and his wife Maria Sung. Photo by Andrew Kilonzi/Standard |
Closing his eyes, Milingo demonstrates his past frustrations in dramatic gestures: "Throughout our priesthood teaching, we are told to close our eyes in the presence of women. To avoid them or any eye contact with them, we are told they are satanic — a big threat to society. This is outrageous!"
"A woman is a good thing, marriage is an even better thing," adds Milingo who wants both embraced, ‘appreciated and loved the world over’.
Against the Vatican doctrine, Milingo hit newspaper headlines across the world in May 2001 when, at the age of 71, he married Maria, then 43, at a ceremony presided over by Korea-based Moon’s Unification Church.
The late Pope John Paul II, accordingly, summoned Milingo and compelled him to promise not to see his wife anymore.
Milingo was sequestered in the precincts of the Vatican and barred from seeing his wife again.
Maria protested the separation from her new love by staging a hunger strike at the gates of the Vatican.
A besotted Milingo equally protested the order with choice words: "How can I now leave my wife? For 43 years as a celibate priest, I only knew God as a male. Now, through my union with Maria, I have come to see the other side of God’s heart, which is female."
Today Milingo leads the ‘Married Priests Now!’ movement and is in the country on a hunting mission for like-minded priests.
Yesterday, Bishop Daniel Kasomo of Machakos crossed over to become among Milingo’s first Kenyan harvest.
Milingo presided over Kasomo’s ordination as Kenya’s new Bishop of the Married Priests Now faction of the Catholic Church.
Despite his eventual excommunication Milingo has vowed to fight for changes from within.
Immediately after his ordination, Kasomo challenged former colleagues in the Catholic Church to "not to be ashamed and come clean on their "secret multiple relationships"
"If you cannot do without it, please get married," challenged Kasomo.
Secretly Married
Presiding over Kasomo’s ordination, Milingo claimed that 150,000 priests the world over are secretly married or have relationships.
Milingo explained that he opted to marry Maria because he did not want to live a lie.
Milingo, however, is categorical that theirs is not about or justification of virility: "We are not here to demonstrate that we are champion bulls, neither is ours a club of priests who love the easy ways of life."
The event at Sasamotor Centre in Karen was a sight to behold.
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