15 September 2007

The Truth About Korean Catholicism

It is for deep reasons that Koreans boast of Catholicism as their own domestic Catholicism. They acquired it by reading about it, and one young man went to China to study this Catholicism, and later on was ordained priest. He was accompanied by an old priest from China, but he was the main preacher. It did not take long that the enemies of Catholicism began to persecute till they killed him with his parents and other relatives.

Hence Korea Catholicism is not a missionary Catholicism. It is their Catholicism goes so far as even exaggerate in defending it. It was a public shame in Korea when in the month of June was held a Peace Cup Football Game in Korea. The first classes came from Britain, Argentina, France, Korea, and other nations. Since Peace Cup was from the brain of Rev. Moon, looking for different ways to put people together living in harmony, the reaction of Catholics and other Christians were shameful. They put in the papers all that they had against Rev. Moon, and made demonstrations outside the football stadiums. The Korean people were so furious that they called them “Khe- dockyo” which means “Christian dogs.” Look how far they could push people to such dirty words against them.

They went to Afghanistan to meet the Taliban. They were captured and they lost two of them, who were killed. The others, after many negotiations which cost 38 million dollars, were redeemed; and the Koreans themselves got furious against them. But instead of regretting as they came back, they organized rallies and considered themselves heroes, publishing books on their experience, becoming rich, selling other objects which they had during their imprisonment. They publicly declared to go back to Afghanistan till they convert Muslins to Christianity. I do not want to use the terms they use against Muslims, bringing back the process of religious dialogue once more at the bottom of the line.

That is why the Catholic Church is up in arms against Milingo who has no guns except his faith. I have never attended Mass in Korea. Even now here in Brazil I don’t go to Catholic Church. I celebrate Mass, so I did as well in Korea, in my own private chapel, myself celebrating Mass with a wine with some strange ingredients such as aroma and asparagus, as I traveled. Immediately my wife and my secretary went to buy genuine wine from Verona, Italy. I had nothing to do with the Korean Bishop, nor did I Attempt to conduct a Mass or attend a Mass in a Catholic Church in Korea. How happy I am that in my life many catholic dignitaries have made themselves fools as they told lies about me.

I am very busy with a chain of e-mails which arrive every day. I must answer them every day, otherwise they heap up, and the writers heap up, as the writers write back to find out as to whether I received their e-mail. I need no publicity from the Catholic Church. Shame to the Korean Episcopal Conference. You are not dealing with a fool, if only you knew.

Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo

Arch. Milingo's speech of 11 September 2007 in Brazil

Your Excellencies, Right Rev. Bishops and Archbishops of the Married Priests Prelature,

The European Association of the Married Priests, particularly Italian, is advising us to do the following:

I hope you will not take it ill, if I tell you that I answered him in this way, he writes in the name of the Association of the Italian Married Priests. I answered: “Caro Fratello, Io ho un Direttore spirituale chi mi segue e controra la mia conscienza minuto per minuto. Stai nella tua convizione, cosi lascimi libero. Tuo Fratello Milingo.”

“Dear brother I have a spiritual director, who watches me and controls my conscience minute per minute. Hold on to your conviction, and leave me alone. - Your Brother Milingo.”

In my view point these priests are appropriated their fellow poor married priests, and made themselves the brain of them all. I do not know the details of their advantages for forming the associations. If they are happy where they are, and they know the ways to deal with the Roman Catholic Church why have they waited till now, when we have come on the scene?
We are convinced of what we are doing. We are full Bishops of the sacred Catholic Church, and we know that God is with us. Whom did the Catholic Church, “Roman” ever pay attention to all that the people have said against celibacy? We are not doing it alone, still applications are coming in to join us. If we receive a Bishop, we receive as well flock. This is what is happening. What they are looking for is the sense of belonging, with a clear direction of what we are doing. We are restoring to them their human dignity and their priesthood. They are happy that they can be saints and that marriage is not a stumbling-block.

Archbishop E. Milingo

31 May 2007

Dear Italian Married Priest,

Happy Easter. I hope that Don Giuseppe shared with you my Lenten Letter, entitled:

Our Lenten Thought.

In this Lenten letter, we are not accusing any body about what has happened to us. We acknowledge our sinfulness, and together with the whole Catholic community, we repented, and renewed our priesthood. We are doing what we are doing, not because we are better than others. We only want to be once more on the road in the Imitation of Christ, but doing our role as Community leaders, chosen by God. Call the priests: Elders, Presbyters, or priests, but with a chosen role and appointment by God, for which they are anointed and consecrated.

We have seriously analyzed and proved that the Catholic Church has been wrong “To Laicize Priests.” A priest cannot be reduced to a lay state, that to a state of a common citizen, who cares only for his own faculties. The common word which makes a short synthesis of his status is that “a priest is a common bread.” It is from this status that he is not only a man of sacrifices, but he himself is a sacrifice for his community. He is to be called upon, to be referred to, to be consulted, and to be all to all. Hence different from Jesus who does not expiate His own sins in the sacrifice He offers Himself, while a priest being a common bread, he shares in this same bread of his own life, because he expiates for his own sins as well.

The Word “Priest”

We are the New Israel. Our breviaries, the Rosary, Roman Missals, all that makes a Catholic life is so connected with priesthood that we cannot avoid the word priesthood and priest. With regard to sacrifice, we date back to Abel. God inspired Abel to show gratitude to God as creator of all that is good, and to bring back to god by offering. Abel did it his way, and it was God’s joy to receive what he offered. Traditionally the one who presides at offerings to god, or to any divinity has a special name, and in some traditions, they devised what to wear during the ceremony. In the case of Aaron the High Priest, the ceremonial gowns were all approved by God.

After Abel then, the Jews, out of all the nations were chosen to properly organize themselves, when it came to worshipping God together. But the offering of Abel was revived by Noah as he came out of the Ark. We read the following: “Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and choosing from all the clean animals and all the clean birds he presented burnt offerings on the altar.” (Genesis 8:20).

The action of Noah, not only did he thank God, and adore Him as the Creator of all creatures; in gratitude he thanked God on behalf of humanity and all creation. Let us see the joy God receives from our sacrifices. “Yahweh smelt the pleasing smell and said to Himself, ‘Never again will I curse the earth because of human beings, because their heart contrives evil from their infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done.’” (Genesis: 8:20~21).

Call Abel whatever you want, give Noah whatever name you want, but they stand in for what the Catholic Church call: “PRIEST.”

This Priesthood in St. Peter’s letter extends to the whole Christian Community. Since everyday, life being problematic, a Christian solves the riddle of life by learning from Jesus whose whole life was a holocaust. He did not offer His life only when He was on the cross, when He said “In manus tuas Domine commendo spiritum meum,” but just as well when He said: “ I came to give them life, and life in abundance.” All His actions were channeled to a sacrifice, not only in one action, but the whole of His life. St. Peter in his first letter says this to us all: “He is the living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to Him; set yourselves close to Him so that you too may be living stones making a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer the spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter: 2:4~5).

The word “Priest” here means someone, who stands in for others, and for his own needs, as the Bible says, to differentiate us from Jesus, who totally stands in for us, without expiating for His sins, because He has none. St. Peter makes us all, as Christians, imitators of Jesus; we have one thing in common with Jesus: “To offer sacrifices and to expiate for our sins.” All these actions are directed to God. As we offer them to God we are doing priestly actions.

Priesthood Continues With New Israel

It dates back, as I said, with the existence of Abel. Later on the Lord, through Moses said: “The burning offering: He will then slaughter the bull before Yahweh, and the priests descended from Aaron will offer the blood.” (Leviticus 1:1~9).

The Catholic Church cannot do away with priesthood. It means what it is meant to be. It is a community appointment, from the people and for the people.

Strange that priesthood will live on, even in the new and the new Heaven. Here it is: “Yahweh says: ‘Like Israelites bringing offerings in clean vessels to Yahweh’s House. And some of them shall make into priests and Levites, Yahweh says.” (Isaiah 66:20~21).

Priesthood designed and planned as it works in the Catholic Church has to follow the will of God, as Jesus says: “You have not chosen me, I chose you.” Unless you are going to prepare a community of faith, grounded in the love of God and neighbor, you cannot leave the choice of a priest to any Jim and Jack. It is always called the Holy Priesthood, not as it was been presented by the Roman Catholic Church, as taking the holiness from celibacy. To choose Matthias to take place of Judas Iscariot, they had to go into prayer and leave the choice to the Holy Spirit. A presbyter to be taken among the people, without involving God, will be popularly chosen man, but not necessarily approved by God. Neither should this dependence on God take this occasion of the rottenness of the Catholic Church, and hence bring in all sorts of categories of those who have ever dreamt to be priests according to their human concept of priesthood. Those who stick to power today, some of them got what longed to have: Glory, Power, Prestige, and all that their priesthood had given them, and they are happy today. But they were not God’s priests; they came in the church through freemasonry.

The Married Priesthood

Ours is the original priesthood. We are not necessarily to compare ourselves with married priests or other churches. We want to be truly married priests of the Apostolic times. The church was found and built on and by the married priesthood. There is no doubt at all that a structure will be made, just to have a format, where we can be acknowledged as priests deriving their priesthood from the Apostles. We are not half-church, the other half being the celibate priesthood. We are fully priests, planned by God, married as Adam and Eve, bringing forth Holy children, as was Abel, from the renewed and repent family, Adam and Eve.

We, who are now receiving the stones thrown to us, do not want to monopolize the work of redeeming our Mother Church. She cannot see nor feel the sorrow that Jesus feels from the priestly crimes. We have received different punishment, but as long as obligators celibacy lasts in the Catholic Church, the degrading kind of sins will continue.

We shall need new vigor and vision to confront, to live once more the Holy, Apostolic Priesthood, sanctifying matrimonial union, and elevating it to the standard God wanted it to be.

How Do I See Our Church?

First of all, I want to share with you how I have watched the actions of our Mother Catholic church. You may differ from my view-point; praise the Lord, let it be so without condemning me. The rationality of the Catholic Church has won predominance in the governing of the Catholic Church. It is not the Pope who governs the Catholic Church; it is “Curia Romana.” But who is Roman other than the one whose opinion supersedes the groups’ opinion. I may be wrong; I never assisted at the procedure for making decisions.

This disease to over-reasoning and reasoning is taken from the reasoning of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and so on. Though we attributed to theology which is believed to pave the way to our faith, even our faith is a rationalized faith, which did not accept Joan of Arc, Savarola, and many founders of religious congregations condemned for their mysterious experiences and were sent out if their own congregations to die as nobodies.

The Curia Romana claiming to have the spirit of discernment, we see now through Mass media what the conquistadores did in the name of the church to the people of Latin America. They did the same for the Black People of Africa. Working hand in hand with the Explorers and their governments, they did what was certainly not from the discernment of the Holy Spirit. The Church had a MIND not a HEART.

Will the church recuperate the HEART? Excommunication, interdicts, suspensions, and many other ways, as you say what the ex-sisters have suffered, you and I tend to hide our heads in the sand. They are shameful crimes of our Mother Church. But if we too go alone, we may make as many resolutions as we want, we shall never succeed to renew the church.

First of all we must change our attitudes towards life. It is not only reasoning, which solves human problems. Today the world needs a lot more the act of the heart, than those of the mind. If the mind believes that it can go alone, making precipitous decisions, however logically they may be right, we shall not serve humanity the better.

St. Paul, Colossian 3:16: “with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God.”

St. Ambrose: “Oh Jesus, in the perfection of your beauty fairer than the children of men, wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin (Ps 51:2), so that purified by you, I may be able to come to you, who are yourself most pure, and that I may be found to “dwell in” your Heart “all the days of my life” (Ps 27:4), to behold you, and to be strong to do you will.”

St. Raymond of Penyafor (1175~1275): “Your purity of life, your devotion, deserves and calls for a reward; because you are acceptable and pleasing to God. Your purity of life must be made purer still, by frequent buffetings, until you attain perfect sincerity of heart.”

If faith, acquired through intellectual perception in theology, it has to be moderated by the perception of the heart in which love resides. And love is the only virtue which will remain after faith and hope have done their job on earth. The disappearing of devotions in the Catholic Church, for instance no respect for the Eucharist, and other traditional devotions, have spiritually emptied the souls of those simple devotees, whose God spoke to them as they sat before Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

Rev. Moon

Just as the old Catholics, the Lutherans, and now strongly the Orthodox feel free to work with me, so are the Moonists, happy to work with me. They see that I have no Catholic pomposity, superiority complex, but guided by prudence and love, I never have offended anyone of them in my behavior. They see in me their own expansion, and that I am a ladder to reach the Catholic Church. It is beyond doubt that Miliongo is Catholic bone, blood, and water, and all that makes him who he is.

Many human beings have played tricks on us, promising financial help, but to no avail. Only Rev. Moon has taken interest in our case and has helped us to move up to where we are. But he does not promise that he will keep on supporting us. The wealth of Rev. Moon is no more in his power. It is his wife and children who are now owners of all that he built up.

Our movement is officially registered, but it was no tax exemption. People are interested in tax exemption in order that one way or another they get back their money. However, it seems that those who are now inviting us to go to their countries will take as well the travel costs and accommodation and food. We hope that does not just remain a dream, but a reality.

Our Prelature

We will deprive you nothing of who you are. None of us will establish a Kingdom out of Married Priest Now! You have already suffered more than enough. We count on your good will and honesty and sincerity. There is none among our Bishops who is power-hungry. Our Kingdom is in our own families, where we display a total freedom and confidence. Nor are we expecting honors and decorations, patting us on our shoulders. We are simply family priests. At our meeting s our wives have all the freedom to say what they feel, and we all pay attention to what they say.

I personally see the Prelature expanding through units. This means the priestly family units which will be formed in different countries. In my concept I see our Prelature enlightening the units and diffusing the wisdom which comes from these units and share them with everyone. The picture I have may not be adequate to demonstrate what I have in mind. Much of what I see is the Holy Spirit coming down on each Apostle and on Mother Mary on Pentecost day, giving each one of them all the graces needed to carry out the mission God had decided upon. The Prelature should be looked at as a communication channel that continuously refreshes the units in order to go into action and activity.

If ours is a mission for the church today, the Holy Spirit is not going to limit Himself to those who are administrators or the councilors of the Prelature. There will be a reciprocal sharing of Spiritual experiences, of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says to the Ephesians: “And to some, His ‘gift’ was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers, to knit God’s Holy people together for the work of service to build up the Body of Christ, until all reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and for the perfect man, fully mature with fullness of Christ himself.” (Eph 4:9~14).

I am certain that all your questions are answered. Do not look at us from a distance. The game we are playing is as well yours.

God Bless.

Yours Sincerely,

Archbishop E. Milingo

Standard II

South Korea

February 16, 2007

Loosened from the Cobweb of

Celibacy but with Pain and humiliation

The Vicar General: “Here is a letter from His lordship, you are finally laicized, never stand anymore before the people of your former parish, as their pastor. You are not allowed to preach to any group in this diocese, since the dead cannot bring back life to the dead.” Father Jim Leewald almost collapsed before the Vicar General, as he took the letter of dismissal and laicization from the Vicar’s hands. Nobody knows where he ended up. This and more similar stories are the fate of many married priests.

In this second standard I would like to share with you my deep sympathy and compassion for the many priests who are sending us e-mails. First of all I would like to send to you this common thanks to all of you. I have lived some how with a self-confident belief that I was courageous, that I could not easily weep, always ready to face hardships. But now I am weak. Even as I am writing this article, tears are under control, but they fill the sockets of my eyes. I want to assure the married priests that we are on the right path, claiming our God-given gift of priesthood, fully holy by its nature, and divine in every aspect. I have to avoid quotations fro now, otherwise what I want to share with you will end up in quotations.

Let me bring up short communications with the world-wide married priests, as they share their misery with me. However, there are those who were laicized, receiving a forced blessing from their bishops who did not even want to look at them. While the majority were looked at as weaklings in relation with women. Some of them shared the pinch of deep pain in the hearts of their parents, who had longed throughout their life to have a saint among their children. “What God’s gift and blessing it was to have a spiritual hero over sexual life, and celibacy the Angelic Virtue could only be lived by the living saints.” So they believed. “Only to wait for death for a canonization.”

On that day of priestly ordination, tears of joy flowed from the eyes of the priests’ parents. “We looked forward and waited for this day,” they said, “finally it is ours to thank God that we have seen it, and we thank God for our son for having persevered and for the whole family, who accompanied him with their prayers and sacrifices.”

This Standard II cannot contain all the stories of our ordination day. “That was the day,” we all say. We never dreamt of what we are undergoing now, knocking at the door of our Mother Church, which no more recognizes us as her children. On the other hand we are no more knocking, we are in the Church, and we claim our rights to put into use our priestly gifts to serve the people of God.

Our Mother Church is not aware of the tremendous change in attitudes towards life. The world is not going to come back. There are still many transformations in human life, which are in the way. The presumed monopoly of knowledge and the belief to control the Holy Spirit in His choices of spiritual instrumentalization is no more limited to the self-made all round knowers of divine revelation. They may be fortunate if God has left for them a little portion of divine illumination. It seems to me that even this little portion which is left to them may go out. The consequences will be the total darkness of the Church, for only a short while. Just as it happens when they are changing sceneries on a theater platform. When the light comes back the scenery takes a new shape suiting what is forthcoming.

We are aware of this forthcoming change in the Church, it will be a sin of omission on our side to keep silence. That is why we are working with the dry bones, in which the spirit will move, and give new life to the world. “The dead cannot give life to the dead,” said the Vicar general. The married priests were not dead, they were only put in a freezer, deprived of operative pastoral activity. In due time, which is now, they resume their priestly ministry with new vigor and zeal for the salvation of souls. It is now confirmed that they did not make a mistake by the second choice after celibacy to marry. But that that is what the priestly life ought to be, celibacy being an exception.

“Therefore we must cherish our family life in a special way, and display it as a new philosophy of life in the Catholic Church. Otherwise it is useless to call the attention of the whole world that we have based married priesthood’s arguments on profound reasons in order to find a fulfillment of our true life. Our wives have finally completed us as persons, by sharing their love with us, have truly filled an emptiness in us, which was slowly consuming us as a malignant tumor.” (Arch. E. Milingo’s letter to Arch. Brennan.)

St. Peter Chrysologus in his 147^th sermon speaks of the power of love. What God had put in humanity was originally His own love for each one of us, and each one of us in turn for our fellow human beings. Marriage is the fulcrum and distribution of this divine love. The force which this urge of love has in man, if mishandled may be destructive. Here is the way St. Peter Chrysologus puts it: “If love does not attain what it desires it kills the lover. So, it goes where it is led, not where it aught to go. Love breeds desire that becomes so inflamed as to make its way towards what is forbidden.” St. Peter Chrysologus clarifies the existing battle within a celibate priest, who does not know how to satisfy his biological sexual urge, and many have ended up as we all know the story, “with pain and humiliation,” “towards what is forbidden by the law of celibacy.”

If it were by the “supreme wisdom” that the priests were condemned it would be acceptable. While it is to everyone’s knowledge that often the condemner of a fallen priest was at the same time hiding one’s own crime in the same category. Hence says the Instruction on Faith 3-5: “Therefore seek the supreme wisdom not by verbal debate, but by the perfection of a good life, not with the tongue but with the faith which issues from singleness of heart, not with that which is gathered from the guess of a learned irreligion.”

Celibacy became an idol in the Catholic Church. Thousands and thousands of priests have been sacrifices to it. By laicizing a priest, they stripped him off of his human dignity, I mean the Mother Church. And even dared to send him to hell by prolonging the process of laicization, and let him die still in suspension with despair. This fact cannot go on, it is enough.

Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.

From the outset let us restrict the meaning of the word standard to our own understanding. That is, putting it in the contest in which we are using it. We take the word standard as a target at which we are aiming. It does not mean that we want to monopolize the word standard, but even in its general meaning it carries with it “a pulling upward.” It serves as a goal to aim at, or a goal arrived at.

“Our standard,” as married priests will serve both ways. That is, “aiming high, as well as a goal at which we must arrive.”

I want to make a very important digression, before I take up the matter at issue. I was partly shocked at the first look, when I read among the thoughts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in contemporary theology, when he speaks of: “Christianity without Religion.” He puts it this way: “Christianity which only uses God when the believers feel the need of God.”

In one phrase he puts it this way: “The great part of the world is without God. This may explain,” he says, “the world being far away from God, hence the world has not yet grown up.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer longs to see the world grow up to maturity, and he concludes: “It can only attain its high goals, when the world will pursue the footsteps of Jesus Christ.” He does not hesitate to say that the life we speak about in Christ is new life. It can only develop by acquiring the habit of being in God and in His presence. We ought not lock God in us, but allow Him to move with us. He concludes that this is the reason why Jesus became us, to be in us and with us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer touches something which has remained stamped in my mind and heart as well. He says for the fact that nothing is impossible with God, this same power, by a special privilege God has as well given us. If we live in God and act under His guidance, we too can do the impossible and make then possible. This is confirmed by Jesus Christ when He said, “You will still do greater things than these which I have done, when I shall be interceding for you in the other life.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Resistenza e Resa, trad. Bologna, Bompiani, Milano 1969, PP. 268-270.)

I have not gone out of the line of thoughts. It was a digression, which will illustrate what I am driving at. What I mean is that if the Christian world has lost the meaning of Christianity, and is today without God, this fact has affected even priests. We can say that as we see it today the thousands upon thousands of priests have been deranged from the right path. Hence the extreme measures of punishing them have as well punished or stifled the life of the Church. Hence the Catholic Church without priests, has been left without faith. Many people don’t go to church, though they are baptized and are Christians, but living without Christian life, without true genuine religion.

Priesthood Without Holiness Is Fake Priesthood

Before I explain the title in details, I was the first to fail to think of priesthood without holiness. It may sound a wicked thought, but in history God reacted terribly when this fact happened. Hence to understand the difference between the Levitical priesthood and the Zadokite, this happened from the disappointment of God with the Levitical family. Though He did not take away the priesthood from the Levites, He showed His disgust of them by giving them ‘menial priestly jobs.”  The commentator on the matter puts it this way: “The demotion of the Levites to menial service in the Temple was enforced in the actual restoration after exile, and explains why relatively few Levites were willing to return.” (Ezra 8:15ff). we know the story when Aaron, the High Priest in the desert followed the will of the people in the absence of Moses, when they made an idol, “this was their God, as to what has happened to Moses, we don’t know.” They adored the golden calf. God did not forget this fact: “Because they used to minister for them before their idols, and became an occasion of sin to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn an oath against them, says the lord God: they shall bear the consequences of their sin.” (Ezra 44:12).

By so doing the Levites became priest without holiness. Further on we come across God’s claiming of holiness even from Israel as a people, His elect. They were not allowed to have mixed marriages with other nations, who were uncircumcised. That is, unholy, who were pagans. In this case, “holiness was thought of as something physical, as though it were communicable, and therefore not to be brought in contact with unconsecrated persons.” (Ezra 8:15ff).

However the New Testament drive is to be among the unholy in order to become a light among them, salt and yeast. All the three mentioned by Jesus, that is light, salt and yeast, have one common function, to transform and give a new form. With light things become clear. With salt things change taste for the better. Just as well yeast uplifts the dough and takes another form “bread” for instance. All the three in the spiritual sense carry within them something divine, a sharing of godliness, call it holiness. What is light other than God Himself: “What came to be through Him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5).

With bitterness of life, which laid heavy on mankind because of the fall of our ancestors, Adam and Eve, we lost the taste of life: “I came to give them life, and life in abundance.” So once more mankind can raise the head out of the mire of degradation. “But to those who did accept Him, He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.” (John 1:12-13).

This new life of which Dietrich Bobhoeffer spoke about is a reality. It is true that it is new because, “It is not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.” To expect more than this from God is just as to expect a golden ring from the mouth of a crow. Man may be asking too much from God. Even what a simple Christian is, which is not simple, “nor by a man’s decision but of God,” more than this it is asking too much.

“Priesthood Without Holiness” means crossing over destroying the foundations of a Christian life, and finally emptying man’s sanctuary, the priest’s holy of holies. It means touching his consecration. A priest receives his first consecration in baptism. Even as simple Christians, as Zachary says in the Canticle at the birth of his son John the Baptist, it was ours, we, the new people, to walk in holiness and with holiness. Hence he says of the forthcoming savior: “he swore to Abraham our father to grant us, that free from fear, and saved from the hands of our foes, we might serve Him in holiness and justice all the days of our life in His presence.”

What is Holiness?

We are not here in a class of catechism. Nor are analysts tearing the word “holiness” into pieces and finally pointing out where holiness is hidden. The simple people like me want only to understand something which serves me in life. So holiness in one word is uprightness. My understanding of uprightness is to lead a balanced life in attitude towards others, acknowledging the supremacy and ownership of God on me and other creatures. To crown it all to live according to God’s plans for my life. Others call it doing God’s Will.  “I come to do God’s Will,” says Jesus. Hence Jesus is called “The Holy One.” In line with Jesus, what then is holiness? They send us back to the understanding of holiness of Israel. We then the new Israel will find our holiness in Jesus.

Let us take it from the Collegeville Biblical theology: “Jesus the Holy One: “In the same way that Israel understood it holiness as a participation in and reflection of the holiness of God, so Christians saw themselves as sharing in the life of the risen Jesus, God’s Holy One, by virtue of their faith and their baptism into Christ.”

Priestly Holiness, Something Tangible

With adaptation in the world today, being up to date, the priest has come to believe that simplicity solves more problems than the show off of Aaron’s golden robes, turbans and all that distinguished him from other people. This belief of false humility has induced a priest to lead a hypocritical life, while mixing easily even with gangs, in order to convert them, so he believes. Like a criminal investigation police, who goes as far as to marry in a village, the abode of the suspect, till he finds the murderer hidden in that village. His adulterous life is a means to be accepted as a member of that village. So the marriage of convenience serves as long as he finds the murderer. This is where we stand the priests of today. We have chosen to be simple, up to a criminal level.

We are even encouraged by the palatable words of the exhausted people with the scandals from the priests’ life as they accept his sinful life saying: “He is a man like us.” We believe that the people forgive us by so saying, while it is only tolerance that forces them to accept the priest. They may as well reason as follows: “Nowadays priests are few. Look at that empty parish without a priest. If this priest goes away, shall we have another?” Consequently all the parishioners close their mouths. They feel inadequate to correct the priest, and he goes on leading a sinful life.

I am not saying what I say in order that you close your eyes to my sinfulness. It is exactly from the spirit of compunction, which is eating me up from within, which forces me to confess to you my own sinfulness. I see myself in everything I say. How many sins of human respect I have committed, when there was a need of a strong courageous testimony, when people looked to me in order that they too should pluck courage and do great things d for the glory of God, and for the salvation of souls. Did I remember that I was a priest at that time? I accepted to be one of them, and believed that I was humble by not saying no to such nonsense.

I will never forget when I was one day silenced in a theological meeting in Nairobi at a Eucharist Congress, 1985. My fellow African priests were graduates of overseas universities. Whatever theological issue they discussed, I saw everything in a biblical perspective. I answered with a biblical quotation. These were African Philosophers and theologians. They considered my answers making short cuts, and coming to conclusion too abruptly. So they psychologically made me feel out of place. So I had to leave the meeting. According to them, “you don’t solve everything through the Bible, reason it out.”

Is it our intellectual capacity which will solve the world’s problems? The twelve had only one school and one teacher. With Jesus they walked, they sat down to preach. They saw Him making miracles. He slept on the boat, tired from walking and fatigue. So witnessed to His humanity, when He went to lo0k for figs, when it was not the season for figs. From within their hearts, some of the Apostles laughed at His ignorance. While He blamed the tree that it did not know that the master was passing by to visit the fig tree. Jesus was simple. However, he did not in any way betray His mission as the savior of the world. He had no compromise with the Pharisees, the Scribes, and the High Priests. He stood alone for the truth. He had a message to deliver to the world. He told His Apostles, “you are in the world, but not of the world.”

Where Should HOLINESS Bring Us To?

Holiness is not passivity. It is not a mother of pearl to be hidden in a cloth only to be taken out when it will be time to sell it for a better price. Moreover, how far is Holiness a gatherer of personal grandeur? It is not to be displayed for a show off. It is life from God to be lived while we are on earth. “Be perfect as your Heavenly father is perfect.” God’s perfection is seen in the perfection of creation. “He made everything well, and was Himself fully satisfied with everything he created.” He sees Himself in everything. While a human being is still a better mirror of God among all earthly creatures. Living according to His plans, allowing every grace he imparts to us, we too will be a reflection of God, not only ontologically, “made in God’s image,” but also in a virtuous life “made in God’s likeness.”

It Is Up To Us To Choose

The Fathers of the Church dwell so long on the explanation of the meaning of the twelve explorers sent by Moses to the Promised Land. One would rather be inclined to believe the majority, the ten who spoke against the Promised Land. They spoke with such conviction that if it were not by the intervention of God, the two, Joshua and Caleb, would have lost the case. (Num. 14:20-38). The anger of God against the ten explorers who spoke against the Promised Land had great consequences on the population of Israel. The forty days of exploration was made equal to forty years being nomads for the Israelites in the desert. The explorers abused the confidence Moses had in them by selecting them as trustworthy people to represent the people of Israel. On the contrary they worked against Moses and people believed in what they said, and refused to go on to the Promised Land.

In the history of salvation, even among the Apostles there were those who caused scandals. Judas Iscariot was one, and so up to a certain measure Peter the Apostle who denied Jesus at a very important moment. However, thank God, He came back to his senses, and was given a great responsibility to head the Church.

The Fathers of the Church see this fact of betrayal in the Church, still today, being carried out by us priests. With our lack of faith we have played the role of the ten bad explorers who spoke evil of the Promised Land. And consequently caused disaster which befell the whole nation to be punished by death during the period of forty years, and not allowed to enter into the Promised Land. Only the later generation entered the Promised Land, with Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful servants of Moses. For us the Promised Land is nothing else other than Paradise, the eternal abode to which we look forward to after a life of faith. Our life must give testimony of the reality of this Promised Land. The scandals which the priests cause have great consequences. Because of their being believed to be so close to God. The awareness of being a priest should not only serve when the priest is carrying on a priestsly function, but that he is a priest every moment. “It is not the habit,” they say, “that makes a monk.” This is true up to a certain extent, but in the past, the children from the royal family had special education, and had to learn how to behave themselves in the community in which they were living. A priest ought to be simple, but up to what extent? A priest is a priest, not the habit. His life has to demonstrate that he is a priest.

There is a story of a priest who went to the beach in summer, and freely mixed himself among the people, since he was morally loose. He was certain that having nothing special as a mark of his priesthood, he would safely play the good boy, giving himself excessive freedom with some mothers, not to say girls in the water. At one moment a girl looked at his knees. It was those days when priest spent a lot of time on their knees. On his knees were marks of a hardened skin on both knees. The girl looked closely and said: “Father, where do you say mass?” The priest blushed and said: “Not far from here.” He went out of the water, and was never seen again. Here it was not the habit, but his manners betrayed him.

For the married priests we hope that such games will not be played again. We hope that the remedy is in the family. A priest will uphold the standard of his priesthood together with his family, and will not commit such scandals.

Ours is a duty to lead people to the Promised Land. The faith explorers did not deny that there were giants in Canaan, and the surrounding countries. But what is that when “God is with us?” They have had experience of God’s intervention in most difficult moments. God was always there with them.

We are priests of hope. Our confidence in God should always be our driving force as long as we live on this earth. Behind us are many who look to us, and follow us. Nothing is insurmountable, when it comes to the salvation of the people. Jesus has done already the greatest and the most difficult task. As he says Himself to each one of us: “Come follow me. Take up your cross and follow me.”

We are renewed priests, settled in our families. On the other hand, we are repentant priests. So was St. Peter our model of life.

+ E. Milingo.

Season’s Greetings

My Dear Bishops and Archbishops, and You My Dear Married Priests,
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year, 2007! You and I ought to thank God for what we have done. We seem to go blindly forward, as we don’t see the opening doors of hope from our own Mother Church. The recent letter I received from Rome from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, clearly declares that there is no way to reconsider married priesthood for the Roman Rite, but we will enlighten him and the Holy Father with accurate information. He told me in the letter that he disapproves of our association Married Priests Now! and does not even think we are a sector in the Roman Catholic Church, but we are the Church, too!
As I read the letter I pitied the many married priests’ associations, some of which have been waiting for the opening of the door of the Vatican for approximately 40 years. But now while there seems to be no hope, we remain hopeful. We are sending the letter from Rome, study it and meditate on it. We will answer it shortly.
On the other hand His Eminence Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re leaves us free. It is up to us to develop our conviction and work hard to bring to the fore this traditional stem of the priesthood, Married Priests Now!, which is full of competent and able priests. The Roman Catholic Church will not close its eyes to the development of the Married Priests Now! Prelature, because God is with us.
Let us not look back, as the wife of Lot did when Sodom and Gomorrah were being burnt. We could not afford to live under celibacy which would consume us in the fire of sodomy. We know that the Lord pulled us out by force as He did with the family of Lot. (Genesis 19:15-16)
Remember the humiliations we endured. Still today many of our fellow married priests are in hiding, having lost the colorful glory of celibacy, like the Hebrews who regretted for leaving Egypt where they ate melons and cucumbers. They left in a hurry without enough food. So they complained to Moses: putting aside their slavery in Egypt they remembered the food they had in plenty. “They had been driven out of Egypt, with no time for dallying, and had not provided themselves with food for the journey.” (Exodus 12:39-40.)
The married priests like the Hebrews who remembered cucumbers and melons, are still today undecided to come out openly and leave aside the hypocrisy of hiding behind celibacy. The cucumbers and melons of Egypt stand for the glories they received from living the Angelic Virtue of celibacy. Some have been waiting for dispensation, and up till now they cannot squeeze it from the Vatican. The Vatican has watched the suffering priests under the torture of excommunication and expulsion from active pastoral work. Just like a cat that plays with a rat after paralyzing it, enjoys seeing it struggling for life.
Your future life is with us, be convinced of this fact. Your hope is with the Married Priests Now! We are convinced of what we are doing. On your behalf we maintain that your priesthood has not been touched in any way. We look forward to rectify your marriage, if you are not yet regularized. As you will celebrate with us on the day of the next convocation, rest assured that from that day on you have thrown away all the entanglements to your priesthood. Celebrate Mass freely, and be faithful to your wives, the twin souls God destined for you in eternity.
Our Mother Mary loves you. She sees in you the Image of her Son. How happy she will be to see you once more celebrate Mass. Together with you she will be once more on Golgotha, offering the sacrifice of Mass for the salvation of souls to the glory of God.
Once again, Maria and I, and the archbishops of our prelature, wish to you, your wives and your families a Christmas full of the joy and peace of Jesus, Our Savior. I will be remembering you in my masses on Christmas and throughout the season.
May God ever be with you.
Yours Sincerely,
Archbishop Emmanuel 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. 

October 7, 2006

Let Us Talk Together In Honesty  

We have no reason up till now, my dear married Bishops and priests, for regretting for having washed our dirty linen in public. In all our documents we have shown respect and reverence for the Church. Due to the name of our Catholic Church, upheld so high in the eyes of the world, if we, the married priests have been the cause of the slow motion within the Church, which has led to the loss of her reputation, by our action to reinstate the married priests, we have taken one of the greatest steps to restore the good name to the Church.

You are surprised that I do not bring you to a Church tribunal for having married while you were in your pastoral field. What you did was an offence which was attached to your change of mind through your impulse and discovery of who you were. You longed to be with someone outside, a partner in a true human union through marriage. At that time the law, which is only a precept attached to your priestly vocation, you opted to lead a natural life in matrimony. Some of you, considered by your superiors as Angels, could not easily be allowed to put away your vow of celibacy. All the same you gave up, and with it your pastoral priestly ministry was taken away.

We who understand what that precept, which does not deserve the name law, human nature itself has in these days through human experience rejected it. From the overwhelming number of e-mails from all over the world, we have come to understand that celibacy is no more a necessary attachment to priesthood. Debates are still going on in the whole world. We have only been an opportunity through which finally the world has voiced its hidden opinion on the matter. It means that the precept was implicitly imposed on the candidates to priesthood, without offering them an option. As they presented themselves as candidates to priesthood, they were made to believe that it was a requirement to embrace priesthood. As a matter of fact it was not so. Priesthood stands on its own, without celibacy as reinforcement.

The New Priesthood

The Old Priesthood of the High Priest Aaron, of the family of Levi, even the nature of this priesthood demanded a superior way of living. We must admit that human nature however, has always diminished the luster of God’s calling nearly in every human vocation. Starting with the Christian family, it is said that sixty percent of the Christian families in the world are standing either on one leg or completely paralyzed. That is, living in misunderstanding and unforgiveness, or divorce. What a pity! This is the case of the actual priesthood. The delay to call the priests to the original standard of priesthood be it the Levitical or that of Melchizedek is to participate in the wearing out the true meaning of priesthood.

The perfection of priesthood is in its own nature. The priests, in the Levitical order: “The Levites were the Lord’s special company. They were not to own any part in Israel, except for the cities that were given to them by the different tribes to dwell in. the Lord was to be their entire inheritance.” (Deut. 10:8-9; 18:1-8; 21:5. Joshua 13:14.)

Gwen R. Shaw, herself a Jewishess, helps us to put clearly the demand of priesthood as God put it to the chosen family of Levi. We are tracing the roots of our priesthood. Marriage must never be an impediment to live according to what God wants of us. It is useless to come back to our priesthood, lost externally through refusal to go by the law which did not give us option. As we embrace once more our ministerial priesthood, let us show love of our vocation, and uphold the high standard to which we were originally called. It is not marriage, which was believed to reduce a priest to a carnal level of concupiscence and so be numbed by the carnal pleasures. What wicked thoughts!

Going back to Gwen R. Shaw on the matter of the Levitical priesthood, she says: “They were chosen to set a perfect example before all of Israel by keeping His Word and His Covenant, to offer the sacrifices and to teach the judgment and the law. They had to put incense before the Lord and offer whole sacrifices on the altar, withholding nothing for themselves. They were never given an inheritance. God said: ‘I will be the inheritance of Levi.’”

A Spanish journalist asked me: “How will you support your many married priests? They have business to maintain their families. That is why the Church preferred celibate priests, who, as they die, none of their relatives can claim anything.” If this be the case, we have the more reason to take away mandatory celibacy. The Church should not sacrifice the lives of the priests for a little money which a priest will have in his bank account as he dies. Then celibacy has been bought at too much of a price that has cost the lives of many priests.

The second reason for not approving their illogical sacrificing of priests to celibacy, for a material reason is the fact that the Church did not keep the way of life proposed by the first Christian community. The detachment of property, which takes the name “inheritance” in the Levitical priesthood, is the pouring together of the fruits of the work of the first Christian community. We read as follows: “The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in common.” (Acts 4:12) Hence says Gwen R. Shaw: “They were never given an inheritance,” God said, ‘I will be the inheritance of Levi.’”

We are not going to be impeded to realize the designs of God, which have been announced to us through the Blessed Virgin Mary. I am certain that the Association, Married Priests Now!, will overcome this material difficulty. We just need to use some of our own priests to study seriously as to how to stick to what the Lord says in Leviticus of His own people, the priests, whose full time is as well laid down. The Lord will Himself care for those whose full time will be working for the whole community of Married Priests Now!. Gwen R. Shaw recalls the daily occupation of a Levitical priests, as follows: “He is called to be a mediator between God and man. He not only offers up the sacrifices to God, he is called to be a sacrifice himself. He has a lifetime of service before him.” (The Tribes of Israel)

The ministerial priesthood to which we are calling the married priests to reinvest themselves with takes its integrity and wholeness from the one who made it so, God the father who planned it. As you can see there is no mention of celibacy. God did not demand so called first class sacrifice “celibacy” as it has been believed up till now. “The Levites are a people with the high calling of God upon their lives.”

We, who have suffered, for the second choice of our lives, married life, should no more lower again in any way the white linen of priesthood.

Let us see why our actual priesthood has jumped from the Levitical family to the family of Judah. The Judah blood lineage does not have such good origins attached to it. But here for the sake of Jesus, who purified the blood lineage of Judah, we are settled in peace and enjoy the same nobility as Jesus.

However, in between the Levitical Priesthood and the Priesthood of Jesus, there is the Melchizedek Priesthood. Strange that the Melchizedek Priesthood is by far higher than the Levitical Priesthood! Because the humility displayed by Abraham, in whose loins was Aaron the future high priest, to Melchizedek by giving him the tithes, a tenth of each of his possessions, showed that Melchizedek was superior to Abraham. Moreover, Melchizedek was a mysterious figure. It is said that he had no father, and no mother, and nobody knew where he came from.

Why then was Jesus compared to Melchizedek? Because Jesus too is a mysterious figure, God-man. But He is higher than Melchizedek, because it is God Himself, who ratifies His Priesthood by an oath. He ratifies the eternity of his Priesthood. As to the unclear origins of Melchizedek, Jesus enjoys the same. “Who are you?” The question came from the crowd. “Why do you hide yourself,” they asked Him. “You know where I come from” He replied. So he was an unknown figure, hard to understand.

The superiority of the priesthood of Jesus has two important constituent elements. One is that it is God the Father who swore that Jesus was consecrated and appointed Priests by God Himself. The second element, not less important, but equally important, is that He was priest forever. That is, in eternity. And this is the priesthood we enjoy. King David has it in his Psalms 110:4: “Yahweh has sworn an oath which He never will retract, ‘you are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever.”

The Biblical Theology on Christ’s Priesthood which is ours, ties our priesthood with that of Christ and Melchizedek, in a nice and smooth way. Here it is: “The figure of Melchizedek serves as means of reflecting on the meaning of Christ: Priest and King, who, bringing forth bread and wine, blessed Abraham. We are called to share in the priestly reality of Christ, partaking of the bread and wine which from the ongoing celebration of our Covenant with God Most High, who loves us and draws us to himself, through the priestly mediation of Jesus Christ.” (Dictionary of Biblical theology: Michael G. Witczak, S. J.)          

The Late Holy Father, His Holiness John Paul II says: “For this reason, on Holy Thursday we, the “ministers of the New Covenant,” gather together with bishops in the Cathedrals of our local churches; we gather together before Christ – the One and Eternal source of our priesthood.

Married Priesthood: The Totality of Priesthood.

The family as a domestic church together constitutes a community of priests. Hence we read in Isaiah, when God foresees Israel, when well settled, will give glory and praise to God. They will offer not only sacrifices, but their whole life as a community will raise their voices to God, glorifying Him as their Father and Creator. By so doing, as a nation, they will act as one single priest does on behalf of the community. Hence Isaiah says: “The people I have formed for myself will sing my praises.” (Isa. 43:21).

St. Peter in his first letter calls us Christians to be aware of the shared priesthood from Jesus. This is what the Vatican Council II has divided into two, the ministerial priesthood, that is the ordained minister, and that of the Christian community. Hence St. Peter says in his letter: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 2:5)

The married priest’s family becomes “a living stone” which upholds the members as priests from whom sacrifices are continuously being offered for the expiation of their own sins and for those of the community. There is herein then in this family both ministerial priesthood and the royal priesthood as a chosen family to serve God and the community in a special way. To make it clear, let us refer to what Elaine M. Waiwright writes in his article in Colleville Pastoral Theology. He writes as follows in the matter: “The totality of the lives of the members of these communities then become like “sacrifices” within the temple of God’s presence in the world (Rom. 12:7). In the words of St. Paul, Romans 12, we read the following: “Think of God’s mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God.” (Rom. 12:1-3)

The married priest’s family should be conscious of this fact, much more than the other members of the Christian community. They share in the priesthood of the head of the family, the husband; while combining with their own “royal priesthood” received from Christ, the head of the family of Christians.

Let us work hard to bring back the true face of a Christian family, the Holy Family. They were all holy. The married priest’s family has all the elements necessary to live more the true life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. It is beyond doubt that Mary, the Mother of Jesus and St. Joseph her husband, truly shared in the priesthood of Jesus. So is the whole family of the married priest.

Archbishop E. Milingo.

Very Important Note

Peace of Christ, and greetings from Washington, DC. Our meeting is over. I am certain that you have heard through TV, Radio or newspaper all that we have discussed together. Our document, the conclusion of the meeting from 12th to 14th July, 2006, has been diffused on 165 English newspapers, 110 Italian papers. We know that many other languages have as well given ample space in their papers. We owe them all a big thank you.

A few have taken it upon themselves to threaten us with excommunication or laicization. These are words which are obsolete after Vatican II. Nor can they be used for our case, because we are not quarrelling with anyone. We are stating facts which are pungent in the lives of married priests. Excommunication-laicization are terms of unnecessary threats which we consider, as the Lord says “Using old bottles for new wine.” Only a stingy person will do so. But he will lose clients later on when they will know that he uses old bottles for new wine.

The married priests now are always priests. They have an indelible priestly character, “according to the order of Melchizedech, the eternal priest.” This indelible character cannot be ‘excommunicated or laicized.’ So is Jesus the Eternal Priest, He too according to the order of Melchizedek. “No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. In the same way it was not Christ who glorified Himself in becoming High Priest, but rather the one who said to Him: :You are my son; this day I have begotten you; “ just as He says in another place: “you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:4-6). This truth of the indelible character of priesthood is as well repeated to us every Holy Thursday.

Our glance at a priest must not stop on how he looks as we see him as a human being. He is a valuable person before God and before the Holy people of God. St. Ambrose puts it well when he says: “You saw the Levite there, you saw the priest, you saw the High Priest. Do not consider their outward appearance, but the grace of their ministries. It was in the presence of Angels that you spoke, as it is written: ‘the lips of a priest guard knowledge and men seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the angel of the Lord of Hosts.’” (Roman Breviary: St. Ambrose on Mysteries)

My dear brothers, married priests, it is true that through a long period of dispassion, despair and many other aspects of your suffering you have been inclined that you became unwanted by the church. But now once more through this circular you have been evaluated from the nature of your priesthood. Those of you who are able to gather together into threes or fives, please pray together as priests’ families or celebrate Mass together. Bring back Jesus in your midst and in your community. Be available if a local diocese asks for your priestly services. God bless you and be with you.

Yours sincerely,

Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.