NAIROBI, Kenya — Schismatic Roman Catholic priests, who left the church to claim their right to marry, are now asking for an “African pope” to lead them.
The priests say they regret their former church is “allergic” to change. They believe priestly celibacy is neither rooted in the teachings of Jesus nor in the work of His apostles, who were married. And they insist celibacy does not work in an African context.
Former Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo — who married a Korean acupuncturist in a 2001 celebration sponsored by the Unification Church and presided by its late founder, Sun Myung Moon — serves as “African patriarch” of a number of church groups affiliated with his movement.
Milingo was excommunicated in 2006 for consecrating four married priests as bishops. Later, he founded a group called “Married Priests Now!” Since then, the number of priests leaving the church to marry and rear children has grown. There are an estimated 300,000 members affiliated with Milingo’s movement across Africa.
The group, loosely known as the “Reformed Catholic Churches,” resembles the Catholic Church in belief and ritual and is led by young clerics, many of whom were educated in Vatican-approved seminaries before leaving to form their own congregations. The fledgling group has churches in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa.
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