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American Morning

Debate Continues Over Vatican Celibacy Policy

Aired August 17, 2001 - 10:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A controversy surrounding a married archbishop has refueled a long-simmering debate over a Vatican policy on celibacy. Just how carefully the church is dealing with the archbishop's case may indicate how delicate the situation has become.

CNN's Chris Burns has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's long been known as the "Voodoo Priest," irritating the Roman Catholic Church with controversial exorcisms. But it was the last straw when Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo took a wife at a group wedding in New York City last spring organized by the Unification Church.

The Reverend Sun Myung Moon picked Milingo's spouse. The Vatican, enforcing its ban on married clergy, threatened to excommunicate the archbishop.

Milingo's actions have tested the limits of Roman Catholic Orthodoxy, amplifying old divisions within the church and sparking debate over how Catholicism should seek and keep its followers.

It appears the 71-year-old archbishop has given up his battle to save his marriage. In a handwritten letter released by the church, Milingo renounced it after meeting with Pope John Paul II. The Vatican says Milingo is reflecting at an undisclosed Catholic retreat near Rome.

Milingo's wife say she doesn't believe the letter. Maria Sung, a 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist, who hints she is pregnant, says Milingo was forced to write it and threatens to file abduction charges against the church. "Why don't they let him see me?" she said.

Beyond the story's summertime tabloid appeal, it has turned up the heat on simmering debate over whether and how the Vatican should reform: first, whether to repeal the ban on priests marrying. Since the mid-1960s, by one estimate, 120,000 have quit so they could become husbands and raise families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of them, if given the option today, would come back into service if they could do that while remaining married. So we have a very active debate on this question. And certainly Milingo has posed the latest and most high-profile challenge to that.

BURNS: And its handling of Milingo points up the Vatican's struggle to retain parishioners as well as priests. For years, Milingo ignored church warnings against his exorcism rights in African. The Vatican finally forced him to retire from his archdiocese in Lusaka in 1999 and moved him to Italy, though he still draws large crowds to exorcisms here. The same year, the Vatican tightened its rules on exorcism for the first time since 1614.

In an interview last December, Milingo, who grew up as a cattle herder in Zambia, argued he had to adapt his preaching to compete with traditional local culture.

ARCHBISHOP EMMANUEL MILINGO, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: In Africa, we've got quite a lot of people who also go to these healers. And we were surprised? Why? We in the Catholic Church, where they go to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) make it so clear. Go and preach the Gospel. Cast out devils. Heal the sick. How is that we in the Catholic Church, we are unable to do that?

BURNS: With Africa one of the fastest growing parts of the world for the Catholic Church, some experts say that's why the Vatican is careful in dealing with Milingo.

(on camera): And the story is far from over, for Milingo and the woman who still claims him as her husband: a situation that's grown beyond their control and has become a battle among churches for hearts and minds.

Chris Burns, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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