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Yahoo! Hong Kong - News World

Sunday, May 27 9:18 PM SGT

Archbishop Milingo, healer and exorcist, to wed in New York

Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo -- healer, exorcist, and now also a singer -- has repeatedly left the Vatican red-faced and was set to do so again on Sunday when he is married by Reverend Sun Myung Moon in New York.

Born in 1930 in a village in eastern Zambia, Milingo was illiterate until the age of 12, and so poor that he has said he only tried on his first pair of shoes when he turned 18.

But after studying theology, philosophy and the social sciences, he became a Catholic priest 10 years later.

Famous across Africa for his popular radio appearances, the Zambian preacher was nominated Archbishop of Lusaka at age 39, a post he held for fourteen years before falling out of the Vatican's good graces.

Milingo's activities as a healer and exorcist provoked widespread condemnation from the Holy See, which saw them as incompatible with his ecclesiastical duties.

Accused of having lost his mental stability, he was recalled to Rome in 1983 to face a trial by the clergy. In his autobiography, "The Healer of Souls," he accused the Vatican of literally "kidnapping" him and forcing him to live for months -- "like a prisoner" -- in a monastery.

He was eventually made deputy head of an organisation dealing with the pastoral of tourism at the Vatican, where he lived in virtual exile.

But he resumed his healing activities, first in Rome and later throughout Italy, Europe, and soon around the world.

Thousands of people "possessed by the devil" called for him to save them, leaving the Catholic clergy deeply divided over what to do with him -- some rejected the Zambian while others showed solidarity with him.

With the Italian media busy courting him, Milingo in 1995 pulled another surprise: dressed in a floral shirt and a baseball cap, with an array of traditional musical instruments in hand, the priest recorded his first music album, "Gubudu Gubudu" or "The Drunkard".

With the success of his first album, inspired by Zulu culture, the priest produced a second one three years later, which he named after himself and dedicated to the continuing battle against evil.

After being told he was a "clown" and a "sorcerer" by the Italian Cardinal Silvio Oddi, Milingo replied: "You only have to get yourself exorcised to avoid spending eternity next to Satan."

The Vatican was steadily growing more exasperated with the Zambian, particularly after he became cosy with South Korea's Unification Church, now with around 200,000 members worldwide known as "Moonies" after their leader.

Milingo was stripped of his functions, lost his official flat in Vatican City and moved to a village in the Italian region of Lazio, from where he would stage his world tours.

"In the Church, everybody has their own vocation and mine is to battle evil," said Milingo.

On Sunday, he is expected to marry a 43-year-old Korean woman -- personally selected by Moon -- during a mass wedding ceremony in New York, the Italian ANSA agency reported.