Milingo Update: Excommunication

UPDATE: The Vatican has apparently confirmed Milingo’s automatic excommunication.

GET THE STORY.
Further updates to come.

SECOND UPDATE: Here is the text of the Communique issued by the Holy See’s press office (NOTE: Since the press office does not have the authority to declare excommunications, I suspect there will be further documentation following from a competent dicastery):

   "With great concern, the Holy See has followed the recent activities of
Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia, with his new
association of married priests, spreading division and confusion among the
faithful.

  "Church representatives of various levels have tried in vain to contact
Archbishop Milingo in order to dissuade him from persisting in actions that
provoke scandal, especially among the faithful who followed his pastoral
ministry in favor of the poor and the sick.

  "Bearing in mind the understanding shown, also recently, by Peter’s
Successor towards this aged pastor of the Church, the Holy See has awaited
with vigilant patience the evolution of events which, unfortunately, have led
Archbishop Milingo to a position of irregularity and of progressively open
rupture of communion with the Church, first with his attempted marriage and
then with the ordination of four bishops on Sunday, September 24, in
Washington D.C., U.S.A.

  "For this public act both Archbishop Milingo and the four ordinands have
incurred excommunication ‘latae sententiae,’ as laid down in Canon 1382 of the
Code of Canon Law. Moreover, the Church does not recognize, nor does she
intend to recognize in the future, these ordinations and all ordinations
deriving from them; and she considers the canonical status of the four
supposed-bishops as being that they held prior to this ordination.

  The Apostolic See, attentive to the unity and peace of the flock of Christ,
had hoped that the fraternal influence of people close to Archbishop Milingo
would cause him to rethink and return to full communion with the Pope.
Unfortunately the latest developments have made these hopes more unlikely.

  "At times of ecclesial suffering such as these, may prayers intensify among
all the community of the faithful."

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

15 thoughts on “Milingo Update: Excommunication”

  1. It’s a fine point of the law, to be sure, but, according to the Vatican press release, Benedict did not excommunicate Milingo and his band of married men – Milingo et al. incurred excommunication themselves, by virtue of the act of consecrating (or being consecrated) without a pontifical mandate.
    Further, there remains a question – all four men purportedly ordained bishops this past weekend claim to have already been ordained bishops previously – albeit illicitly – by Old Catholic or other schismatic bishops. If their previous consecrations were valid, then Milingo did not impart any episcopal character upon them, and therefore, he would not be subject to an excommunication.
    Now the four bishops would likely have incurred automatic excommunication at the time they had been consecrated previously, under the same canon (c. 1382), and Milingo would certainly be subject to some heavy ecclesiastical penalties, but I don’t think it’s entirely clear that he has been automatically excommunicated by this act. Personally, I think a good, public, penal trial which rendered a sentence of excommunication, rather than simply the declaration of a latae sententiae excommunication, would be called for in this case. Bring back the bell, book and candle!

  3. It seems that what Milingo actually did on Sept. 24 was either an ordination, an attempted or pseudo-ordination, or is otherwise being viewed as an equivalent act subject to censure under 1983 CIC 1382. Recall that, in the post-conciliar reform of canon law, criminal law or sanctions was cut to the barest of bones. Since then, many canonists have noted that the canonical descriptions of many crimes seem too narrow to encompass within their strict terms (per 1983 CIC 18) the variations with which actual offenders commit their deeds. While the facts on Milingo are being sorted out, keep alert to the possiblity that, as the living organism which it is, canon law is expanding, in its terms or interpretations, before our eyes to help the Church confront better the multiform duplicities of human behavoir.

  4. Archbishop Milingo has clearly gone beyond the pale. But the chapter doesn’t end with his excommunication.
    Between him and his four married buddies, he just created the ecclesial framework for his own schismatic church. And with Moonie-money, he can now put bread on the table for himself and his compadres. In short, he has just become the pontiff of a puppet denomination which the Moonies can use to lure away the faithful. Deluded souls will be drawn to these congregations thinking that they are merely expressing a disagreement with Rome regarding married clergy, when in reality they will be joining a satelite of the Moonie cult.

  5. “his band of married men”
    Ha! Tim F., I know this isn’t a laughing matter, but I loved that line.

  7. the Church does not recognize, nor does she intend to recognize in the future, these ordinations and all ordinations deriving from them; and she considers the canonical status of the four supposed-bishops as being that they held prior to this ordination
    Is this just saying the ordinations are illicit, or does it suggest they are invalid?
    If they are invalid, then on what grounds? By appearences to me it seems there is matter, form and intent requisite for the sacrament.

  9. Between him and his four married buddies, he just created the ecclesial framework for his own schismatic church. And with Moonie-money, he can now put bread on the table for himself and his compadres. In short, he has just become the pontiff of a puppet denomination which the Moonies can use to lure away the faithful. Deluded souls will be drawn to these congregations thinking that they are merely expressing a disagreement with Rome regarding married clergy, when in reality they will be joining a satelite of the Moonie cult.
    BINGO! Someone gets it.

  10. I would think that, at some time, Milingo the exocist would ask himself “What in the world has gotten into me?”

  11. What has gotten into Malingo is simply pride. Like all heretics, he finds himself somehow wiser that the Holy Church and thinks he can “show Her a thing or two.” Him and his followers are on a heretical pathway straight to hell and they need our prayers.

  12. “To Dissenting Priests:
    It is your duty to to fix the lines (of doctrine) clearly in your minds: and if you wish to go beyond them you must change your profession. This is your duty not specially as Christians or as priests but as honest men. There is a danger here of the clergy developing a special professional conscience which obscures the very plain moral issue. Men who have passed beyond these boundary lines in either direction are apt to protest that they have come by their unorthodox opinions honestly. In defense of those opinions they are prepared to suffer obloquy and to forfeit professional advancement. They thus come to feel like martyrs. But this simply misses the point which so gravely scandalizes the layman. We never doubted that the unorthodox opinions were honestly held: what we complain of is your continuing in your ministry after you have come to hold them. We always knew that a man who makes his living as a paid agent of the Conservative Party may honestly change his views and honestly become a Communist. What we deny is that he can honestly continue to be a Conservative agent and to receive money from one party while he supports the policy of the other.”
    — C.S. Lewis
    (“Christian Apologetics,” Easter 1945; reprinted in God in the Dock, 89-90)”

  14. Spot on, JoAnna. While reading your post, even before I saw who you were quoting, I thought of the apostate bishop in Lewis’ “The Great Divorce”.

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