BBC NEWSAmericasAfricaEuropeMiddle EastSouth AsiaAsia PacificArabicSpanishRussianChineseWelsh
BBCiCATEGORIES  TV  RADIO  COMMUNICATE  WHERE I LIVE  INDEX   SEARCH 

BBC NEWS
 You are in: World: Europe
News image
Front Page 
World 
Africa 
Americas 
Asia-Pacific 
Europe 
Middle East 
South Asia 
-------------
From Our Own Correspondent 
-------------
Letter From America 
UK 
UK Politics 
Business 
Sci/Tech 
Health 
Education 
Entertainment 
Talking Point 
In Depth 
AudioVideo 
News image


Commonwealth Games 2002

BBC Sport

BBC Weather

SERVICES 
Saturday, 18 August, 2001, 21:07 GMT 22:07 UK
Mediation in Vatican-Moonie affair
Maria Sung Milingo, fasting, shows a picture of her and her husband, Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo
Mrs Milingo has been on a hunger strike for five days
By David Willey in Rome

The South Korean ambassador to the Vatican has stepped in to try to mediate between the Vatican and the Korean-born wife of an African archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo.

Archbishop Milingo has been at the centre of a storm over his ecclesiastically invalid marriage.

Mass wedding
The Vatican claims the archbishop had been brainwashed
He married Maria Sung in New York three months ago at a ceremony arranged by the Family Federation, an American based religious sect popularly known as the Moonies.

The archbishop returned to Italy earlier in the month in an attempt both to keep his wife and also to remain within the Catholic Church.

He had earlier been threatened with excommunication by Church authorities in Rome for abandoning his vow of celibacy.

The Pope made it clear to him that he would have to abandon his marriage in order to return to the Catholic fold.

Archbishop disappears

After meeting with the Pope, the archbishop disappeared from public view.

Pope John Paul II
After meeting with the Pope, the archbishop disappeared
The Vatican then announced that Archbishop Milingo had agreed to renounce his wife.

But Mrs Milingo - now on the fifth day of a hunger strike - says she does not believe this.

Asked by the BBC through an interpreter what would persuade her to end her fast, Mrs Milingo said her condition was to meet her husband.

Vatican embarrassed

She said she would insist on meeting him alone and would not accept a meeting with Vatican representatives present.

Mrs Milingo earlier refused delivery of a letter from her husband which Vatican officials tried to hand to her.

Archbishop Milingo, who is 71, is staying at a monastery somewhere in Italy where, the Vatican says, he is preparing himself spiritually for the end of his marriage.

The Milingo case is highly embarrassing for the Vatican, in view of the Pope's total refusal even to discuss allowing Catholic priests to marry.

Internet links:


The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Links to more Europe stories are at the foot of the page.


E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Europe stories



News imageNews image