Vatican City, Dec 17, 2009 / 09:29 am
The Holy See announced on Thursday that the former Archbishop of Lusaka, Emmanuel Milingo, has been dismissed from the clerical state after persistently acting against Church teaching. Milingo had already been suspended and excommunicated latae sententiae for serious transgressions in the last eight years.
The Holy See reported that despite repeated efforts to return the African archbishop to "full communion with the Supreme Pontiff and the other members of the College of Bishops" his continued neglect for Church doctrine has merited him the "further penalty of dismissal from the clerical state."
The former archbishop has a history of disobeying Church law.
The first of what the Vatican called "this unhappy series of events" took place in 2001 when Milingo tried to marry Mrs. Maria Sung, at which time he was subject to a "medicinal" suspension. He was not deterred as he subsequently pushed for the abolition of the discipline of priestly celibacy by leading groups and giving interviews "in open disobedience to the repeated interventions of the Holy See," reads the Vatican press office's official statement regarding the case.