ROME -- Two American pastors have joined the crusade to arrange a meeting between Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo and the wife the Vatican insists he give up.
The Revs. T.L. Barrett of the Life Center Church of God in Christ in Chicago and Hycel Taylor of the Second Baptist Church in Evanston, Ill., said they have asked for an audience with the pope.
The two Protestant ministers hope to persuade him to allow a meeting between Milingo, 71, and Maria Sung, 43, the woman he married May 27 in a group wedding conducted by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
"We will go as neutral and objective friends of Christendom to request his Holiness, Pope John Paul II, to allow Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo to personally and privately express his true intentions to his wife and to the world," Taylor said at a news conference Tuesday.
Barrett said he and Taylor also want to ensure that "this black man who is unique in the Catholic Church is receiving the justice that is due and is treated fairly."
Milingo, who is from Zambia, was already out of favor with the Vatican for having conducted faith healings and exorcisms. After the wedding, the Vatican threatened him with excommunication.
The Vatican later suspended that threat, saying the archbishop had decided to return to the church. His whereabouts were not disclosed. The Vatican has said Milingo is on a spiritual retreat and should be left alone to pray.
Sung, an acupuncturist from South Korea, went on a hunger strike Aug. 14, saying she hasn't met with her husband since Aug. 6, the day before his audience with the pope. She has said she fears Milingo is being held against his will.
The South Korean ambassador to the Holy See also has been meeting with Vatican officials for days to try to set up a meeting between Milingo and Sung.
The Vatican has offered the ambassador a meeting between delegations representing both spouses, said the Rev. Philip Schanker, an official of Moon's church who is acting as Sung's spokesman. Sung rejected the offer, insisting on a face-to-face meeting with her husband, he said.