Mrs Milingo: Wants to know where her husband is

The Vatican's watchdog department, which deals with heretics and schismatics, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, released a statement in Rome.

It said the African archbishop, as a result of being personally reminded by Pope John Paul II last Tuesday of his responsibility towards God and the Church, is now spending a period of reflection and prayer with a view to full reconciliation.

After the meeting with the Pope, the Vatican backtracked slightly on an ultimatum it had issued, giving the archbishop until 20 August to renounce his new wife and pledge his allegiance to the Pope.

No time limit now exists.

Hunger strike

But Mrs Maria Sung Milingo, the Korean doctor who the archbishop married last May at a ceremony organised by the Reverend Sun Yung Moon in New York, appeared at a news conference later in the day denouncing the Vatican for not allowing her to get in contact with her husband.

Mrs Milingo threatened to go on hunger strike unless the Vatican tells her where her husband is.

It is a human rights matter, she said.

The Rev Moon regularly celebrates mass weddings

The Vatican is treating the case of the married African archbishop with some caution.

The Pope fears that if Archbishop Milingo, who has a considerable personal following as a faith healer, breaks with the Church, he could go off and found a new sect which allows priests to marry.

Church sources say some priests in Africa are already breaking the celibacy rule, to which the Pope officially allows no exceptions among the Catholic priesthood, except for a very small group of former Anglican priests.