An Opportunity of God’s Grace.
My Dear Archbishops and Bishops,
Monsignor and Priests, Sisters and Deacon, Ladies and Gentlemen,
They were nice days, spent together. There is that psalm which you all know: “How nice it is to be together Brothers and Sisters. It is like oil flowing on the beard of Aaron, carrying with it a soothing effect.” Having one mind and one heart we put our heads together to forge the new prongs for the Catholic Church of to-morrow. We have already begun to live the Church of to-morrow as soon as the meeting was over.
It was a joy to hear the names of Peter and Paul, as approved leaders of our Movement.
This is how genuine we are in our aims of setting up a Prelature which gives honor and glory to the out-standing Apostles “St. Peter and Paul Catholic Prelature.” We learn the following from St. Peter:
“Your minds, then must be sober and ready for action, put all your hope in the grace brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do not allow yourselves to be shaped by the passions of your old ignorance, but as obedient children, be yourselves holy in all your activity, after the model of the holy one who calls us, since Scripture says:“Be holy, for I am holy.”(St. Peter 1:13-16) Such writing of St. Peter was taken as literally applying to us, who had been made to believe that we were holy, because we were celibate. But it is the more meaningful and demanding on us to-day married priests. Because this holiness is now to be fully shared in our families. As we married, the priestly holiness, touched the outer members of the mystical body, the community we serve.
Then St. Paul, in the letter to the Philippians has the following for us: “Have the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. Do not do anything from selfish ambition, or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble towards each other, never thinking you are better than others. And look out for each others interests, not just for your own.”(Phil. 2:2b-4).
Even if we were only to live on these two scripture quotations from the patrons of our Prelature, we would have enough for our meditations for many days. How freely we shared the discussions. How we valued each one’s contribution. How we felt the importance of each one of us. Let these not be just memories which will come and go away, and easily to be forgotten. Each one’ presence had a value, that is how we made a mystical body, coming from different countries, with different cultural apparatus, but finding ourselves aiming at the same welfare for ourselves and for the whole Church of Jesus Christ. “Ubi caritas est, Deus ibi est,” where there is love, God is there.“Certainly God was among us.”
Encouraging those who have already a service to offer to the community, let them educate their community on what we are: “Roman Catholic married Priests.” We have to assure them that we never lost our priesthood, we have only publicly reassumed our pastoral work.
Aware of the enormous task of a priest to-day, we would like to involve as much as we can the faithful, and invite those who feel they too can fully dedicate themselves to serve the community. We must never hide that striving for holiness is for each one of us in our status and environment.
We all have to be holy, God does not expect it to be less than that.
Holiness is the nature of God’s children, which we are. It is not something to boast of, it is both a duty and obligation.
If we don’t strive at holiness, we are denying the nature of the one who dwells in us, the Holy Spirit. We are ashaming God, whom we call “Our Father.” We are not the imitators of Jesus Christ, whose name we bear, that we are Christians. In all sincerity and honesty by our Christian Vocation, which we have accepted with joy, we ought to live accordingly, by being what we are called to be: “Be holy because I am holy.”
We shall renew the Church, if we shall truly be “The salt of the earth, the light to the world, and the yeast in the world.” It is time to be it.
To come back to the original nature of our Catholic Church, to become the true disciples of Jesus Christ. We are priests, known in other words: “Alter Christus” another Christ.
May God bless you all.
Yours Sincerely,
Arch. E. Milingo.
Archbishop Milingo also said the movement is preparing for the Universal Peace Federation meeting.
He indicated that faith based groups will soon hold a symposium on Catholicism.
The Archbishop, 78, leads 150,000 married priests across the world.
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
FORMER Archbishop of Lusaka, Emmanuel Milingo has condemned the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC)'s boycott of the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).
Archbishop Milingo has since advised the Catholic bishops not to divide the Church and the nation over the matter.
And a Catholic priest, Father Charles Chilinda said yesterday that Archbishop Milingo had an agenda with the Unification Church and should stop insisting that he was still a Catholic.
Speaking during a special interview on Muvi Television on Monday evening, Archbishop Milingo said it was not fair for the Church to withdraw from the NCC without a proper reason.
"The Constitution should be made by everyone because it affects everyone. How will ZEC represent the community if they are not participating in the NCC? The question that everyone should ask now is will ZEC obey the Constitution?" he asked.
The 77-year-old prelate, who was excommunicated in 2006, warned that religion could play a very divisive role.
He cited historical incidents when people killed each other for holding different religious opinions.
On his excommunication, Archbishop Milingo said the Catholic bishops in Zambia should realise that attacking him publicly would only divide the people.
"The way ZEC is doing things is surprising. Are you telling me they cannot pray for me? These are my blood brothers. You cannot teach people hatred without deeply reflecting on the love of Jesus," he said.
He said he was in the country to pray for the sick and was happy that many people still trusted him despite the many attacks he had received since he made his decision to marry.
The prelate dismissed fears that he was forming his own church of married priests and was quick to reiterate that he was still a Catholic and was not excommunicated.
He said he still loved Pope Benedict and other leaders of the Catholic Church but stated that for any one to say he was excommunicated was like killing someone spiritually.
"I will die a Catholic. I am Catholic from head to toe. We are the original Catholics. Saint Peter who is the first Pope married, so were the first priests. You know we were cheated that we cannot marry as priests but now we know we can," he said.
Archbishop Milingo revealed that he started thinking about marriage around 1995 when he attended South Korean evangelist, Sun Myung Moon's meetings where he discovered that marriage was beautiful.
Father Chilinda of Lusaka's St Ignitius Parish, said the former Archbishop of Lusaka actually excommunicated himself from the Catholic Church when he ordained four married men as priests without papal authority.
Fr Chilinda said on a live ZNBC-TV interview that Archbishop Milingo's healing powers were a gift from God.
He wished him well as he went about praying for the sick although he was no longer in communion with the Catholic Church.
"The former archbishop has an agenda with the Moonies and should choose between them and the Catholic Church. One cannot be both a Moonie and a Catholic," Fr Chilinda said.
The Vatican excommunicated the 77-year-old archbishop in 2006 when, in a blaze of publicity in Washington, he ordained four married men as priests as part of his group 'Married Priests Now'.
He first stunned the Vatican when he attended a mass wedding in a tuxedo and kissed his white-gowned wife for the cameras in a ceremony in a hotel.
Archbishop Milingo later left Maria Sung, rejoined the Church and went into seclusion for a year of rehabilitation in South America before he returned to Italy and moved into a convent near Rome.
But in 2006, he again went missing from the convent, turned up in Washington with Sung, and has been criticising the Vatican over its celibacy rule ever since.
Archibishop Milingo conducted the healing mass that lasted for over two hours.
Archibishop Milingo and his wife Maria Sung are in the country for a five day-visit.
A number of healing sessions have been lined-up for people with spiritual needs.
And speaking in an interview with ZNBC news Archibishop Milingo pledged to continue healing people.
