Vatican defrocks exorcist archbishop who married

(December 18, 2009) African Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who practiced exorcism, faith healing and created a scandal in the Catholic Church when he married a Korean woman, has been defrocked, the Vatican said on Thursday. A Vatican statement said the former archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia, excommunicated in 2006, was no longer a priest. It referred to him as "Mister Milingo". The unusual action was taken because Milingo had been threatening to illegally ordain bishops as part of a breakaway church that would allow priests to marry, a spokesman said. The Vatican excommunicated the 79-year old former archbishop when, in a blaze of publicity in Washington, he ordained four married men as priests as part of his group "Married Priests Now". According to the Church’s Canon law, Milingo's defrocking means he will no longer be able to carry out priestly duties and will not be allowed to dress like a priest. The Vatican also warned the faithful that any participation in events organised by Milingo, who had a strong following when he was a Vatican official and lived in Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, would be "unlawful". It acknowledged that the defrocking of a bishop was a "most extraordinary" action in Church history.