The exorcist and the church
By LOU MARANO

 WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- If God gives someone the power to cast out
demons, it stands to reason that the exorcist will be able to tell the
difference between spirit possession and other problems, a controversial
religious leader told United Press International.

 "Any exorcist inspired by the Holy Spirit is not going to chase any devil
when there is no devil," Emmanuel Milingo said during a wide-ranging
interview in New York City Tuesday afternoon.

 "We are able to discern if God is with us."

 But Father C. John McCloskey, director of the Catholic Information Center
in Washington, disagrees. "That's absurd," he said in a telephone interview.
Asked whether it's possible that Milingo has a gift, he said: "That's
something I don't know, and he doesn't know."

 He likened Milingo to "some notorious Pentecostal evangelical minister"
who "blows people down on stage by the dozens."

 Based on Milingo's disobedience to church authority, McCloskey believes
the Zambian archbishop does not have a special gift.

 In 1969 Pope Paul VI consecrated Milingo bishop of the Archdioceses of
Lusaka, capital of Zambia. On April 3, 1973, by his account, Milingo
discovered -- almost by chance -- that he was blessed with the charisma of
healing.

 "As I obeyed God as his instrument, countless miracles took place,"
Milingo said.

 In 1982, however, the Vatican ordered Milingo to return to Rome, where he
endured 14 months of enforced isolation before he was allowed to meet with
Pope John Paul II. He said that during this time he was subjected to four
sessions of hostile questioning by a church commission. His interrogators
denied that his was a gift from God and accused the archbishop of practicing
the dark arts of superstition he had learned from his "witch doctor's"
family.

 Milingo's answer, then and now, was reference to the scriptural
admonitions to know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:16; Luke 6:44).

 On August 6, 1983, the semi-official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano reported that Pope John Paul II had "accepted the resignation of the
archbishop of Lusaka." At the same time, the pope named Milingo as his
"special delegate" for the Vatican agency that coordinated pastoral care for
refugees, immigrants and gypsies. In 1999, he was quietly removed from that
post.

 During his years in Italy, Milingo continued to practice faith healing and
exorcisms in various parts of the country. These activities were not always
well received by local bishops.

 "Some of the bishops can't stand exorcism -- can't stand any mention of
the devil. Bishops!" Milingo said incredulously.

 But administrative matters might also come into play. Church rules state
that bishops designate one official exorcist per diocese, and the identity
of that priest -- who comes under the bishop's authority -- is not revealed
lightly.

 Scripturally, however, Milingo seems to be on solid ground. Matthew
Chapter 10 enjoins the 12 apostles and 72 disciples to go heal the people
and cast out devils, Milingo said.

 On April 1, 1996, Catholic World News reported that Milan's Cardinal Carlo
Martini had asked Milingo, in a private letter, to stay out of his diocese.
Milingo told reporters he would comply with that request. In 1999, the
Vatican limited the use of exorcism, revising its guidelines on the subject
for the first time since 1614. Many speculated at the time that Milingo and
his charismatic style had prompted that revision.

 In November 2000, the pope's chief of doctrine, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
signed an order banning exorcisms and healings during the celebration of
Mass. This February the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeffrey Fleishman reported
that Milingo, 71, was celebrating Masses "in villas and fields," laying
hands on the sick and praying for the removal of such diseases as cancer and
AIDS. A congregant told Fleishman that Milingo recently had cast out a devil
from her friend.

 The archbishop now has made what could be his final break from the Vatican
but not, he insists, from the Roman Catholic Church. On May 17 in New York
City, he married Maria Sung, 43, a South Korean doctor of acupuncture. Rev.
Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Family Federation for World Peace and
Unification (formerly known as the Unification Church), officiated at the
wedding of some 60 couples.

 UPI is owned by News World Communications, a company established by Rev.
Moon.

 The policy of priestly celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church is not
doctrinal but the result of an administrative decision. For more than 1,000
years, priests were allowed to marry. And, of course, St. Peter, the first
pope, was married.

 During the past 40 years, the church has released many priests from their
vows of celibacy. Those priests relinquish their clerical duties and go on
to marry. But bishops, who have the power to ordain priests, are another
matter.

 Milingo asked why, after his decades of service to the church, the Vatican
could not bless his decision to marry.

 According to Catholic doctrine, the ministers of the Sacrament of
Matrimony are the bride and groom, not the officiating priest. But McCloskey
said it also is doctrine that the church witnesses a Catholic marriage.

 The priest said that one of the main reasons Milingo has been
excommunicated is that any Catholic who "attempts marriage outside of the
church does not contract marriage."

 Milingo told UPI that he doesn't believe in excommunication. "All of the
conditions of being a Roman Catholic are fulfilled in me," he said. He added
that the church has never found fault in any of his 22 books.

 Milingo, too, believes that a proper marriage must be witnessed and
approved because it is "a social sacrament." He noted that his parents in
Africa had been married according to "customary law" under the supervision
of tribal elders.

 In a prepared statement, Milingo wrote: "I have asked Father and Mother
(Mrs.) Moon to arrange and consecrate my marriage because of my respect for
the special anointing that God has given them for the building of
God-centered marriages and families."

 The archbishop told UPI that he had not broken his vow of celibacy because
it "had served its purpose" and "marriage is the law of nature." He said,
"At 71, I have realized the importance of marriage and its value before God
in the transmission of love."

 Asked if he and Sung saw babies in their future, he replied that they hope
for children.

 In 1996, Milingo made a controversial statement to the effect that
Satanists were at work in the Vatican. He softened that position Tuesday but
called attention to changes made to the sacraments since the Second Vatican
Council of 1962-1965.

 "Aren't you protecting the devil," he asked, when "the formula of baptism
is no longer as it was before" and priests are no longer ordained exorcists?

 McCloskey confirmed that the exorcism function performed at baptism has
been removed "in a formal sense, because you don't need it. The very
definition of what baptism is (is) you're casting the devil out of the
child." McCloskey said that the practice was a liturgical "accretion" the
church had picked up along the way.

 Until Vatican II, exorcism was considered one of the four minor orders of
the Western Church. All priests were made exorcists as part of their
ordination process. Moreover, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the
early church did not confine the practice to clerics but even to "the
simplest and rudest of the faithful."

 McCloskey made the same point, but said exorcism is a very serious
business that can involve not only moral problems but also physical danger.
The ordination of all priests as exorcists was another "accretion," he said.
He said the sub-orders were never regarded as sacraments, but rather
"sacramentals that were attached to becoming a deacon."

 Milingo told UPI, "When we speak of exorcism, we are considering the Devil
as a parasite." He said that he might work with American Pentecostals and
other denominations that do a lot of exorcism.

 The former prelate said that Pope John Paul II always has been gentle,
kind and interested in his work. Those close to the pontiff give him false
information and most of the time make decisions "according to themselves"
under a misinterpretation of the principle of co-responsibility.
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Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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