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Archbishop Milingo was excommunicated today latae sententiae for ordaining 4 married men as "bishops."

It seems that no one has actually written a bull or a letter, just a press release. I guess no one wants to stand up to this rebel.

Patriarch Alexei would have hammered him, wouldn't he?

http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/d2_en.htm

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...13&WTModLoc=NewsAr t-C1-ArticlePage2 [today.reuters.com]

Of course, when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops so that the Old-Roman Church would survive, John Paul II blasted against him.

Now that Archbishop Milingo attempts to create a liberal Anglican-like sect with married bishops, the Vatican only issues a press release.

Abp. Milingo's excommunication was not today.

He was excommunicated automatically last Sunday, ipso facto, when he performed the proscribed act described in Canon 1382 (ordination of bishops without the Holy See's prior approval).

The Vatican "press release" was only to reiterate that Abp. Milingo incurred an excommunication "latae sententiae," i.e., without the necessity of adjudication or pronouncement by the Catholic Church.

Amado

Really?

What ever happened to Holy Scripture as the rule of faith?

1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife , vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

I know I'm most likely gonna git blasted for this, but I don't see a problem in light of the Holy Scriptures.

This sort of this -- putting Tradition in front of Scripture -- is what has kept Protestants from even considering the Catholic and Orthodox faiths for a long time.

(Not that Protestants are any better at the Scriptures with such things as "believer's baptism" and "the rapture" -- both terms not found anywhere in Sacred Writ)

I'm dumb.....perhaps someone could explain this to me?

Brother Ed

Dear Brother Ed,

It is not so simple.

Not only does a Bishop have immense responsibilites which would be greatly hindered by having a family, but there are genuine concerns in Orthodoxy (where the state does not pay clerical salaries such as in Greece) about how the Bishop and his family would be supported, how much they should be supported, (since this is a position of status), and subsequent inheritance concerns. It would be very disconcerting for the laity to see their hard earned money being possibly abused and flaunted in a high life style by a Bishop's family, while their own family cannot afford the same things. It would certainly be a sticky situation.

I believe that it was inheritance and monetary abuses of the position that imposed this discipline.

Let's not also forget the scriptural mandate that one cannot serve two masters. A Bishop must serve his flock and the Church above all else. His position should be one that transcends earthly concerns and pleasures.

Furthermore, traditionally, in Orthodoxy, a Bishop should also be a monastic, which implies mandatory celibacy.

Because our Lord, His Mother, St. John the Baptist, and many saints were not married, celibacy and the disciplines of monasticism are held in high esteem in the Church, both East and West. In the East, this discipline remains in monasteries and with the hierarchy, and in the West, this monastic discipline has also been passed on to the clergy.

Protestantism is fairly new, and for the most part, was founded on the foundations of dissidents. Martin Luther wanted to marry, and King Henry VIII wanted to marry again and again...thus, the very ethos of Protestantism is one of a new order and mentality, and it is only natural that Protestants might not understand the ancient holy and mystical celibate monastic discipline of the Church which produces Hierarchs and Hieromonks (or monk-priests) in the East and celibate priests and Hierarchs in the West.

Just some thoughts.

With love in Christ,
Alice

I don't know why Rome keeps him around? Why wasn't he tossed out over his whole Mooney wedding fiasco? Or does Zambia need bishops THAT bad?

Rome kept him around all these years in the hope of having a firmer grip on his bizarre activities.

Rome "forced" his resignation as Archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia in 1983 at the early age of 53 because of questionable activities, depriving him of his diocesan authority as a convenient platform.

His forced resignation, however, gave him more time to engage in his "charismatic healing" and "exorcism" activities, combining traditional African practices and Catholic rituals.

Until his excommunication last Sunday, he was for all intents and purposes an Archbishop Emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia, with all the rights and privileges of a ranking Catholic prelate.

Amado

According to the 2005 Annuario Pontificio, the Catholic Church in Zambia is organized under:

2 Archdioceses
8 suffragan dioceses
265 parishes
19 bishops
637 priests (diocesan and religious)
1 permanent deacon
596 male religious
1,596 female religous

serving 3.5 million Catholics of Zambia's total population of 12 million.

Amado

I also think that Rome did this because she wanted to contain him from going off the deep end and consecrating bishops (as he just did) and as an act of mercy towards him personally. (As a parent, one always wants to shepherd the weakest children close to the heart.)

Please pray for this poor man. The shepherd has struck himself!

Gordo

So are these married Bishops legit?

Ok, these are the weirdest numbers I've ever seen! There are 265 parishes, and only 41 diocesan priests?! 637-596 = 41. So there are also about 14 times as many male religious as diocesan priests in Zambia? That's insane!

Like one in six or seven parishes has a priest?

Logos Teen

Teen, welcome to the Catholic world outside the USA.

Under male religious, that means they are not priests but brothers or monks.

Religious and diocesan priests, summed together total 637 priests. From this number alone we don't know how many are diocesan priests.

Garrett,

Regardless of the breakdown between religious and diocesan priests, in many Third-World nations, the vast majority of priests are those of religious orders, who constitute the bulk of missionaries.

Actually, a very quick run (don't anyone hold me to absolute exactitude) with a calculator thru the AP2005 data on David Cheney's Catholic Hierarchy [catholic-hierarchy.org] site suggests that 283 of the presbyters in Zambia are diocesan, with the remainder being religious order priests.

Many years,

Neil

John,

There is a telling line in the communique

If the Church holds to this stance, it may indicate a shift in its traditional stance on Apostolic Succession from the Augustinian Theory to the Cyprianic Theory (see post 5 in the linked thread), a long overdue change in the opinions of many.

This would effectively negate (at the very least, future) instances in which vagante ecclesia could feel assured in asserting the apostolicity of a line of Apostolic Succession derived from the Archbishop, as is currently the case with such lines derived from other renegade hierarchs of the Latin, Eastern, and Oriental (Orthodox and Catholic) Churches, as well as hierarchs of the Old Catholic Church and its legitimate and illegitimate American descendents.

Citing oneself as being of the Milingo Line would be of at least lesser standing than is potentially accorded to the so-called Vilatte, Duarte-Costa, Mathew, Alvarez, Ofiesh, Aneed, Thuc, Carfora, Brothers, and Gul Lines, to name just a smattering of the genre.

Many years,

Neil