LUSAKA, Zambia - Zambia's Episcopal Conference of Roman Catholic bishops said Tuesday that controversial Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo had excommunicated himself by marrying a South Korean acupuncturist at the weekend.
"He is no longer a bishop nor part of the Catholic Church," the bishops said after crisis talks called in the wake of Milingo's marriage to Maria Sung at a New York group wedding conducted by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon.
The statement came a day after Vatican chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Milingo could no longer be considered a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and warned of "foreseen canonical sanctions," which analysts saw as excommunication.
The bishops said Milingo had betrayed his vows by marrying while still a priest, had turned his back on the Roman Catholic Church and had failed to live by sound apostolic tradition.
They said Milingo had also betrayed millions of people who looked up to him as a Christian role model and a man to trust.
"We feel deep sympathy for the many people who put their trust in the former archbishop and now feel betrayed and abandoned by his action. The action of the former archbishop is a reminder to us of our own fragility in faith," they said in the statement issued by Medado Mazombwe, archbishop of Lusaka.
The sentiments of the bishops will be communicated to the Vatican. Their statement portrayed the charismatic 71-year-old Milingo as a cleric who had refused to take sound advice from his Zambian colleagues as well as from Pope John Paul.
The independent daily Post newspaper, in a scathing editorial Tuesday, said marrying the 43-year-old was a grave mistake and had "unleashed a process that was self-destructive for Catholicism and for himself."
"There are many things that need to be reformed in the Catholic Church. But we don't think Moonie weddings by archbishops is the best way to do it," the editorial said.
"Archbishop Milingo's conduct was questionable, unacceptable. ... We hope Milingo's followers in Zambia will appreciate that his was a personal cause which deserves little solidarity," the newspaper added.
The Post asked how a Catholic priest could have agreed to be married by the Rev. Moon, the leader of the controversial Unification Church hailed as a Messiah by his followers.
Milingo's marriage is the latest in a string of embarrassments he has caused the Vatican.
In defiance of diocesan bishops in Italy, he has presided over colorful masses and meetings at which he has carried out impromptu exorcisms. Last September, Milingo, who moved to Rome in 1983, was quietly stripped of his job in a Vatican department.