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	Kenya: Go Quietly, Milingo, Build Own Church and Marry By Lucy Oriang' allAfrica June 25, 2009 http://allafrica.com/stories/200906251038.html Nairobi — MANY YEARS AGO, AS A student in Zambia, I happened to meet Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo during an assignment to cover one of his returns to the country after spending time at the Vatican. For days on end, I tagged along after the priest, who was operating under a veil of suspicion over his faith healing. He struck me as a pretty charismatic person, albeit a misunderstood one. He has since transformed himself into a rebel without a cause. In his transition from icon to iconoclast, he has gone out on a limb, ordaining married men into so-called Catholic priesthood in the same breath as he is declaring that he and his cohorts will not quit the church. This is where we part ways. The man joined the church knowing the full implications of priesthood. He found them impossible to live with and changed one ring for another. He should give up all pretence of being a Roman Catholic archbishop, build his own church, and concentrate on living happily ever after with his wife, Maria Sung. All this drama and grandstanding is completely unnecessary. The journey into Catholic priesthood is long and painstaking, and there are plenty of opportunities for one to confess that one lacks the will to continue. Being a Catholic priest cannot be his oxygen, and a billion and more Catholics are happily married with battalions of children. They just did not choose to become priests or nuns at the same time. Let's sort out the wheat from the chaff here. God made no mistake when He created Adam and Eve and set them loose to fill the earth. It was part of a grand design, not only to ensure the continuity of the human race, but also to give Adam much-valued and treasured companionship. When it is working at optimum level, it is just about the most enriching relationship a human being can experience. But, right or wrong, marriage and priesthood are mutually exclusive in the Roman Catholic Church. No one is forced to join or compelled to stay, as far as I know. A reported 150,000 clergy have decamped to Married Priests Now because celibacy is incompatible with their needs. It is a free world, and that's fine. But they do not want to go quietly, like the many Christian factions that broke away from Rome and set up competing outfits. Why the fuss? They do not, after all, need the Pope to validate their relationship with their Creator. ON THE FACE OF IT, IT'S A STRAIGHT-forward matter. When you join any institution, having gone through an induction, read the manual and sign on the dotted line, you are deemed to have agreed with the rules of engagement. If you find them oppressive or change your mind, you resign and head for more accommodating pastures. If you look back, you just might turn into a pillar of salt like Lot's wife in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is the risk that Milingo and company face. The long and short of it is that Milingo and his friends in Married Priests Now are no longer part of the Roman Catholic Church. They are not the first to break away from the Vatican either. Only the Good Lord knows how many Christian groups have drifted away from the church that St Peter built. At the rate at which they are springing up, we might end up with one church or more per Christian household. Our man must summon the courage to fly solo and build the Milingo African Charismatic Church from the ground up. He will find many bosom buddies in a continent always ripe for salvation. As it is, he sounds like a petulant child who is desperate for attention from the parents he has rebelled against. Still, this kind of direct challenge should sound a warning to the church. Those who drown out the small voices are bound to pay the price. It has not always been the case that Catholic priests do not marry, and it is not as if it is beyond priests to walk and chew gum at the same time. In Nairobi this week, Milingo presided over the ordination as bishop of Father Daniel Kasomo, who has owned up to having been married for 16 years and having four children. Also present was Father Peter Njogu, who has been married for 20 years and has three children. These are not oppressed men. They are hypocrites who wanted to have their cake and eat it. Get down on your knees, gentlemen, say 101 Hail Marys and apologise to your families for forcing them to live a lie just because you did not have the courage of your convictions.
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