Press Statement

Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo

Married Priests Now! Prelature

Sheraton at Parsippany , NJ

November 28, 2006

On November 16th, Pope Benedict XVI called a rare meeting of his cabinet, the Roman Curia, to specifically discuss the issues raised by our Prelature in calling for a married priesthood in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.  His official cabinet includes twenty Cardinals who head the Vatican governmental offices, known as dicasteries.

I, Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, and the Married Priests Now! Prelature agree with the Holy Father and the Vatican in their statement that reaffirmed celibacy.  We believe celibacy is a charism for some priests but not for all.  However, we disagree in the enforcement of celibacy as a job requirement for the priesthood. The priesthood must be freed from the obligation of celibacy.  Celibacy should be viewed as an option rather than the norm, a charism that is freely chosen, and not accepted as a job requirement. Celibacy should no longer be considered a prerequisite for ordination to the priesthood in the Latin Rite. To continue to require such a condition only exacerbates an already deteriorating and hemorrhaging situation within the Roman priesthood. Not every priest has the particular calling to be celibate and this is the problem.

We do not believe that a meeting of the Cardinals who head the dicasteries was called to simply reaffirm celibacy.  The report that was NOT released by the Vatican is the important one.  What did the Cardinals actually say about a married priesthood?  Is the Vatican in such a state of denial that it cannot see the need for a married priesthood?

What, so far, has celibacy done for the church?  On the American scene it has destroyed the church by its never-ending sexual abuse scandal.  It has ruined the lives of its countless young victims.  It has cast a dark shadow of doubt on the holiness of the priesthood.  The faithful can no longer trust their priests.  The cost of celibacy has driven diocese after diocese into bankruptcy and church properties have been sold to pay off claims of sexual misconduct by priests.  Celibacy because of its loneliness and lack of intimacy has turned thousands of priests into alcoholics.

The Vatican ’s denial of the problem confirms and encourages our mission to recall married priests to full active ministry within the Roman Catholic Church. The Married Priests Now! Prelature is the only Catholic diocese calling for the ordination of married men and for the return of married priests to full ministry.   

Marriage is a sacrament of the church, celibacy is not.  Marriage is a higher calling than celibacy. The marriage vow trumps the celibacy promise.  Our Prelature believes that a married priest is a healthier priest, and that a married priesthood will give priests a wholesome and proper outlet for their sexuality.  We are created by God as sexual beings and our sexuality needs to be celebrated as a blessing for ourselves and our wives. Marriage needs to be the normal option for priests. Remember that Jesus called married priests first.  St. Peter was a married priest.  The New Testament priesthood was a married priesthood. It is time for the Roman Catholic Church to return the gift of the married priesthood to the Latin Rite.

The sanctity and holiness of the church is in the family.  It is the holiness of the marriage and of the family that reflects the community of love that we find in the love of the Trinity.  The love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a community of love and the true model of the holiness of the family.  Marriage brings us closer to God.  A married priesthood can create wonderful families that because of marriage will identify more closely with the families they serve in the church and community.  A married priesthood will foster equality for women in the church and bring a new form of democracy in church management.  

There is sadness in the Church over the dire situation caused by the shortage of priests.  The faithful realize that they are not being well served because the priests who remain are elderly, clearly over-extended and cannot meet the needs of the faithful.  Hundreds of churches have been closed and laymen and laywomen are being appointed as pastors of churches.  The faithful see and feel the problem and often do reach out to the married priests who are available and willing to meet their spiritual demands.  This is a groundswell movement – a church within a church – that is forming and the Vatican is in a state of denial.  Our Prelature is part of this movement.  This is a New Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit is creating a new church for a new day. 

Married priests, we invite you to come out of your church imposed exile, and join us in our fight to reinstate the married priesthood to our church as we celebrate together our marriages and our priesthood.  Participate in our upcoming conference to be held at the Sheraton in Parsippany , New Jersey , on December 8-10.  The theme of our conference is Marriage and the Priesthood and the keynote speaker, Margaret Starbird, will discuss Sacred Unions.  A renewal of marriage vows and an Ecumenical Marriage Blessing will be included in the concelebrated mass. 

On Sunday, December 10, three married men will be ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in keeping with our aim to restore the married priesthood of the Gospels to our church.  Married men who have been denied the priesthood because they are married are invited to call us about ordination.  Details about the conference and the ordinations can be received by calling (973) 332 2730 or by email: dvferrabolli@ verizon.net

We are the Voice of All Suffering Catholics, the Voice of the True Church , calling on the Vatican to be attentive to the needs of its faithful people.  We ask all of the Roman Catholic faithful to join us in prayer for this New Pentecost.  Let your voices also be heard loudly and clearly in Rome and in your home dioceses. Let the bishops know that you want married priests now. Recalling married priests is a wholesome and simple remedy to help save the church.  Pray that the married priests will be reinstated to full active ministry and that married men will be called to the priesthood. 

Archbishop Milingo thanks the media and corrects the Dan Brown story

My Dear friends, broadcasters and journalists, I too am a mass media person. I thank you for your honest reports in the papers and on television about our young organization, Married Priests Now!

 

You may be interested to hear my personal reaction to the reaffirmation by the Vatican of celibacy for Roman Catholic Priests. Our organization also reaffirms the married priesthood in the same Roman Catholic Church. The celibate priests imitate St. John the Evangelist, while we imitate the rest of the Apostles who were married. There was no distinction in Jesus’ mind, they were all Apostles and equally consecrated as priests when He celebrated with them the first Mass of the Institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. On Pentecost day, they were all and equally confirmed by the Holy Spirit to go and preach the Gospel, cast out devils, and heal the sick. There was no preference as Jesus related to each one of them as Apostles. He said it Himself as He was offering the last prayer to His Father, that He was happy that He lost none except one, whom you all know.

 

I hereby reiterate the fact that people should not believe that we are excommunicated. Look what is happening now as the Vatican is refurbishing the traditionalist Archbishop Lefebvre’s footsteps, and approves again the Latin Mass, celebrated facing the altar. What does excommunication mean?

 

We shall find a way to occupy our married priests, who want to resume the priestly ministry, without much ado. By marrying they did not commit an unforgivable sin. Celibacy is not a divine law, nor is it part of the infallibility of the Pope. It is totally based on man’s will. It is not divine.

 

Milingo’s Repentance

 

The Milingo conceived by some people is the one they expect to repent. The same Milingo who was not understood in his healing ministry, is the same who is not understood even in this case. If the Vatican ardently believes the people who say that he has a consulting contract with Dan Brown, even though Milingo says he does not know Dan Brown, never spoke to him, never met him, never read his book, never saw the film, “Da Vinci Code.”  Such people suffer from fixations.

 

I invite anyone who is so cock sure that what I am doing for married priests is wrong, to come forward.  We will discuss this together with our hands on the Holy Bible before God. We can even do it by telephone, but I will not be responsible for the consequences.  My voice in contact with your voice, and we will not finish our conversation before we reach a resolution. 
Archibishop E. Milingo

For Immediate Release November 16, 2006

Washington , DC . Archbishop Milingo and the Married Priests Now! Prelature concur with the Holy Father and the Vatican finding that reaffirms celibacy according to prelature spokesman, Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan.  “Where we disagree,” said Brennan, “is in the enforcement of celibacy as a job requirement for the priesthood. Celibacy should be a freely chosen charism and not a job requirement. Not every priest has the charism to be celibate and this is the problem because the church forces it on him or he cannot be ordained. It is a requirement that violated human freedom.”

We can hardly believe that a meeting of the Cardinals who head the Dicasteries was called to simply reaffirm celibacy.  The report that was not released is the important one.

What did the Cardinals say about a married priesthood?  Is the Vatican in such a state of denial that it cannot see the need for a married priesthood?

“The Vatican ’s denial of the problem confirms and encourages our mission to recall married priests to full ministry,” said Archbishop Milingo.  “We are the only Catholic diocese calling for the ordination of married men, and for the return of married priests to full ministry, Milingo said. 

“Marriage is a sacrament of the church, celibacy is not.  Marriage is higher calling than celibacy. The marriage vow trumps the celibacy promise.  Our prelature believes that a married priest is a healthier priest, and that a married priesthood will give priests a healthy and proper outlet for their sexuality.  We are created by God as sexual beings and our sexuality needs to be celebrated as a blessing for ourselves and our wives. Marriage needs to be the normal option for priests,” Brennan said.

Married Priests Now! Prelature will hold a confernce in Parsippany , NJ on December 8-10 to celebrate marriage and the priesthood.  We will have a Catholic renewal of marriage vows during the celebration of the Eucharist for married priests and their wives.

Married priests can contact dvferrabolli@ verizon.net for conference details.

In St. Peter’s Square yesterday, a cleric was quoted in the news as saying that those priests who walked away from the priesthood to marry should not be received back as priests.  Our prelature reminds such clergymen that the Gospel of Jesus is about forgiveness.  And we remind him that the church is dying for want of priests.  Recalling the married priests is a wholesome remedy to help save the church.  The first priests called by Christ were married and the church has always had married priests.   “We are going back to the New Testament roots of the priesthood when St. Peter and the apostles were married,” said Milingo. 

Press Statement - Washington, DC - November 13, 2006

The Episcopal Conference of the Married Priests Now! Prelature wishes to thank the Zambian Episcopal Conference for alerting the people of Zambia to expect the arrival of the Emeritus Metropolitan Archbishop of Lusaka.  It is so wonderful that you have advertised his missionary activities and his healing ministry.  Our Prelature enthusiastically supports the apostolic ministry of Archbishop Milingo and we know that he is Catholic in his faith, his heart and his soul.  Any service he performs will by, in and of the Catholic Faith and will bring healing to the people. 

The nature of the Catholic Church is to be toward expansion, not towards narrow retraction. The Church embraces everyone, it does not exclude.  The Church teaches love, it does not teach hate or shunning. Why does the Zambian Episcopal Conference impose sanctions and restrictions on the Apostolate of Archbishop Milingo and cause him to be shunned?  St. Paul consecrated many bishops and instructed them to lead the communities he had founded.  Archbishop Milingo followed the example of St. Paul and did a good thing in consecrating married men as bishops. 

Excommunication is a tool to do evil and to inflict pain. It has no place in civilized society and especially none in the community of the Church of Jesus Christ.  An excommunication caused the Great Schism between the East and the West and you still have not learned its perfidious uselessness.

You think you are doing the Orthodox a favor by calling them “Our Separated Brethren,” but the words are an oxymoron and ridicule each other. The word excommunication ought to be cancelled from ecclesial language.  Excommunication shows the weakness of the church and its inability to solve problems.  Dear Brothers, put Jesus and his Gospel before canon law and its excommunications.

The decision and the press statement of the Zambian Episcopal Conference destroys the unity of the Church.  For love of the people of Zambia and of all Africa, Archbishop Milingo will not exclude anyone who will come to his healing services.  If any of those who come to his service are then persecuted by the Catholic Church in Zambia, it will be a sign that the Catholic Church is not Catholic; and a sign that it is not the true church of Jesus who died praying for unity, not division.  Jesus left us the law of love, not hatred.  Archbishop Milingo is Catholic in faith and tradition and has not changed any Catholic doctrine.  He is only pleading for optional celibacy.  We have only one goal and that is to restore the married priesthood of the Holy Scriptures to our Church.  Jesus chose married priests first.

 

Most Reverend Emmanuel Milingo

Archbishop

President of the Episcopal Conference of

The Married Priests Now! Prelature

 

Archbishop Peter P. Brennan

Archbishop Joseph J. Gouthro

Archbishop George A. Stallings

Archbishop Patrick E. Trujillo

An Open Letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

From the Married Priests Now! Prelature

November 4, 2006

 

My Brothers in Christ,

 

The Archbishops, Bishops and Priests of the Married Priests Now! Prelature send their cordial greetings to you and to the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops of the USCCB.

 

As you know, the Church in our country is in dire straits because of the shortage of priests.  Churches are closing, priests are serving two and three parishes, the Mass and the Eucharist is not available to hundreds of thousands of Catholics.  Lay men and women are being appointed as canonical pastors of parishes. The Church-at-Large has become a Mission Territory .

 

In the face of this crisis, there are 25,000 or more married priests who are ready and willing to serve.  And there are married men who have prepared themselves for ordination who can also be called to the priesthood.  Some of them are currently married deacons but others have never been ordained at all.

 

The Married Priests Now! Prelature with its archbishops, bishops and priests considers itself to be a Roman Catholic Personal Prelature in Communion with Benedict XVI and is part of the Roman Catholic Church.  We are Roman Catholic bishops and do not want to fracture the Communion of the Church.  Our cause is great because it is for the survival of the Church. We are mature adults, not children, so threats, penalties and punishments are out of place in our conversation and will not work.  What will work is an honest discussion about the married priesthood of the New Testament and of the primitive Church.  The faithful are already reaching out daily to married priests for weddings, baptisms and funerals on a continuing basis. It is time to free the priesthood from the obligation of celibacy.

 

This is what needs to be done without delay:

 

1.  Married priests and married bishops need to be immediately but gradually reinstated into the fabric of our Church.  A vicariate or prelature can be established for married priests (and there was a precedent for this in progress under John Paul II) or they can be recalled through our Married Priests Now! Prelature, or recalled by the local bishops. All penalties need to be waived. 

 

2.  Married deacons who are trained in theology and ministry ought to be ordained to the priesthood within a year or two.

 

3.  Married men who are not ordained need to be welcomed into the seminaries or other training programs for the priesthood within the year.

 

4.  Married priests should be able to serve in full time positions with salary, health care plans and pensions or in part time positions.  Credit towards pensions should be given for past service to the Church. 

 

5.  Marriage is a sacrament of the Church.  It cannot be said that celibacy is higher or greater than the sacrament of marriage.  Marriage is the higher calling and is more difficult than celibacy because it is naturally centered on the spouse and children.  Marriage creates great holiness in the husband and wife and in the family.  Married Priests families are a model of the Christian family for the other families in the parish.

Marriage does not diminish the priest’s dedication to Christ but enhances it.

 

An apology should be given to married priests for the poor and unjust treatment they have been given by the church.

 

6.  We wish to keep the avenues of communication and contact with you open, dear bishops, and with the Holy Father for our Married Priests Now! Prelature.

 

The priests and bishops of the Married Priests Now! Prelature stand ready and willing to work with you. The Faithful of the Church are now already reaching out to married priests in an enormous way.  A new Catholic Church is forming with or without your blessing. There is great urgency in this matter.   If you sanction this approach to reinstating married priests and bishops, you will be preserving the unity of the church. The right time is now.

 

We ask your cordial blessing on all married priests and bishops.

 

 

With fraternal love and devotion,

 

 

 

 

Emmanuel Milingo

Peter Paul Brennan

Joseph J. Gouthro

Patrick E. Trujillo

George Augustus Stallings

 

Roman Catholic Archbishops

The Married Priests Now! Prelature

An Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on Freeing Celibacy

From the Married Priests Now! Prelature

November 4, 2006

 

Your Holiness,

 

The Archbishops, Bishops and Priests of the Married Priests Now! Prelature send their cordial greetings to you and to the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops of the Church.

 

As you know, the Church throughout the world is in dire straits because of the shortage of priests.  Churches are closing, priests are serving two and three parishes, the Mass and the Eucharist is not available to hundreds of thousands of Catholics.  Lay men and women are being appointed as canonical pastors of parishes. The Church-at-Large has become a Mission Territory .

 

In the face of this crisis, there are 150,000 married priests who are ready and willing to serve.  And there are married men who have prepared themselves for ordination who can also be called to the priesthood.  Some of them are currently married deacons but others have never been ordained at all.

 

The Married Priests Now! Prelature with its archbishops, bishops and priests considers itself to be a Roman Catholic Personal Prelature in Communion with your Holiness and is part of the Roman Catholic Church.  We are Roman Catholic bishops and do not want to fracture the Communion of the Church.  Our cause is great because it is for the survival of the Church. We are mature adults, not children, so threats, penalties and punishments are out of place in our conversation and will not work.  What will work is an honest discussion about the married priesthood of the New Testament and of the primitive Church.  The faithful are already reaching out daily to married priests for weddings, baptisms and funerals on a continuing basis. It is time to free the priesthood from the obligation of celibacy.

 

This is what needs to be done without delay:

 

1.  Married priests and married bishops need to be immediately but gradually reinstated into the fabric of our Church.  A vicariate or prelature can be established for married priests (and there was a precedent for this in progress under John Paul II) or they can be recalled through our Married Priests Now! Prelature, or recalled by the local bishops. All penalties need to be waived. 

 

2.  Married deacons who are trained in theology and ministry ought to be ordained to the priesthood within a year or two.

 

3.  Married men who are not ordained need to be welcomed into the seminaries or other training programs for the priesthood within the year.

 

4.  Married priests should be able to serve in full time positions with salary, health care plans and pensions or in part time positions.  Credit towards pensions should be given for past service to the Church. 

 

5.  Marriage is a sacrament of the Church.  It cannot be said that celibacy is higher or greater than the sacrament of marriage.  Marriage is the higher calling and is more difficult than celibacy because it is naturally centered on the spouse and children.  Marriage creates great holiness in the husband and wife and in the family.  Married Priests families are a model of the Christian family for the other families in the parish.

Marriage does not diminish the priest’s dedication to Christ but enhances it.

 

6.  We wish to keep the avenues of communication and contact with you open, Your Holiness, and with the other bishops for our Married Priests Now! Prelature.

 

The priests and bishops of the Married Priests Now! Prelature stand ready and willing to work with you. The Faithful of the Church are now already reaching out to married priests in an enormous way.  A new Catholic Church is forming with or without your blessing. There is great urgency in this matter.   If you sanction this approach to reinstating married priests and bishops, you will be preserving the unity of the church. The right time is now.

 

We ask your cordial blessing on all married priests and bishops.

 

 

With filial love and devotion,

 

 

 

 

Emmanuel Milingo

Peter Paul Brennan

Joseph J. Gouthro

Patrick E. Trujillo

George Augustus Stallings

 

Roman Catholic Archbishops

The Married Priests Now! Prelature