WASHINGTON – An excommunicated African archbishop Wednesday renounced the Vatican’s stance on mandatory celibacy for priests and said allowing them to marry would make the Roman Catholic Church a healthier institution.

“The current priest shortage calls for emergency action,”

said Emmanuel Milingo, who was excommunicated Tuesday after installing four married men as bishops Sunday during ceremonies at a Capitol Hill church.

Speaking in both Italian and English at a news conference in Washington,

Milingo said the Catholic Church should embrace more than 150,000 married priests worldwide in part to ease the ongoing clergy shortage and to elevate the sanctity of marriage.

“I believe that the Catholic Church as a mother cannot be indifferent to the situation of married priests who have much suffering and are abandoned,” said Milingo, the 76-year-old Zambian prelate whose relationship with the Vatican has been strained for years.

In 2001, he was married to a South Korean acupuncturist chosen for him by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, in a group wedding ceremony in New York.Catholic officials also have accused Milingo of promoting African indigenous beliefs by performing mass exorcisms and healing ceremonies.

Milingo pointed to sexual abuse allegations against celibate priests in the United States as an indication “that something is wrong.”

He was joined Wednesday by the four bishops he ordained Sunday. They also have been excommunicated.

The men support Milingo’s so-called “Married Priests Now” association, which is calling for a the married priesthood to become a normal part of the Catholic Church.

The group contends as many as 25,000 married priests in the U.S. could be returned to the ministry if celibacy became optional.

Milingo said he will not recognize his excommunication and will continue celebrating Mass and faith healing ceremonies. – (AP)

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