ith his unauthorized exorcisms and faith healings, Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo has long rankled the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. But his action yesterday at a New York hotel may represent his final break with the Vatican: he was married in a group wedding presided over by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

In a ballroom of Hilton New York in Midtown Manhattan, the renegade archbishop stood with his new bride as Mr. Moon sprinkled holy water on them and about 60 other couples and blessed the marriages as if they were no more remarkable than a weekend wedding in the park.

But the 71-year-old archbishop from Zambia made it clear at the outset that he intended his marriage as a shot at the Catholic leadership, which he maintains has lost touch with the lay people whom it is supposed to inspire and the religious hierarchy it is supposed to command.

"The sacrifice of the celibate life has fulfilled its purpose," he said in a statement handed out at the ceremony. "The vocation of marriage and its original, holy purpose has been resurrected."

After the ceremony, Archibishop Milingo sat as a married man with his new wife, Maria Sung, 43, an acupuncturist from South Korea, who had been chosen just a few days before by Mr. Moon to be the archbishop's bride. The couple laughed and snuggled, and the septuagenarian priest said that he planned to start a family.

"If God permits," Archbishop Milingo said to the laughter of those around him, pointing out that the biblical figure Abraham fathered children when he was 100.

Archbishop Milingo said that he had no intention of leaving the Catholic Church, and that he was merely trying to set an example for others. He said that he decided to have Mr. Moon perform his wedding because he had been inspired by the teachings of Mr. Moon, whom the Vatican has denounced.

"His whole teaching is based on the Bible," Archbishop Milingo said.

For their part, representatives of Mr. Moon said that they were happy to preside over Archbishop Milingo's wedding, and that they intended no offense toward the Catholic Church.

"We did not ask for this, and we did not push this," said Rev. Phillip Schanker, a spokesman for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the central organization in Mr. Moon's movement. "He was inspired and moved by Reverend Moon's vision."

Known for its mass weddings, Mr. Moon's movement teaches a unique brand of Christian theology that emphasizes the sanctity of marriage.

The movement has been beset by controversy, including accusations by critics that it is a cult, and that it has used deceptive recruiting tactics.

In 1982, Mr. Moon was convicted of tax evasion and spent about a year in prison.

Officially, the Vatican has not yet publicly said how or whether it would penalize the archbishop, who could be stripped of his position in the church. "We hope it isn't true," said Joaqu匤 Navarro-Valls, a Vatican spokesman.

Once seen as a rising star in the Catholic Church's hierarchy, Archbishop Milingo has been a pariah for years. Born into a poor family in a small village in Zambia, he became, at age 39, one of Africa's youngest bishops.

He began falling out of favor in 1973, when he performed his first exorcism, trying to help a woman thought to be possessed. He quickly gained a reputation as a healer and exorcist, and became known among Italians as a "witch doctor bishop."

In 1982, he was summoned by Pope John Paul II to the Vatican and later forced to resign from his post as archbishop of Lusaka, in Zambia. He continued saying Masses and doing healings across Italy, and in 1996 was forbidden to celebrate Mass or perform exorcisms without approval, which Italian cardinals refused to give.

Two years ago, Archbishop Milingo retired to the small Italian village of Zagarolo, where he continued to celebrate Masses and receive believers. In 1997, he cut his own record, "Gubudu Gubudu" ・a Zambian term describing a drunkard's motion ・which sold 12,000 copies.

The ceremony yesterday was meant to cap a 52-city tour by Mr. Moon intended to emphasize the restoration of the family.

Most of the couples at the group wedding were clergy members of other faiths reaffirming their marriage vows. Only a handful of couples who married yesterday were members of the Unification Church.

Also among those married yesterday was George Augustus Stallings Jr., who left the Catholic Church in 1989. He founded the Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation in Washington.

Many of the couples praised Archbishop Milingo for his courage, and at a banquet that afternoon, he received a standing ovation.

While Mr. Schanker said that Mr. Moon's matchmaking was nowadays only intended as a recommendation, the archbishop said he relied entirely on Mr. Moon to choose his mate.

"The match depends on Mr. Moon," he said.