THE Catholic nuns in Lusaka have called on government to protect Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo from the 'unblessed' marriage with Maria Sung.
Sr. Fransisca Phiri said Sung who is in the country to lobby government so that she could have access to her husband was wasting her time because the issue was closed after Archbishop Milingo returned to the Vatican and denounced the marriage.
"It's actually the Archbishop who needs protection from these people who are fighting the Church, she is fighting a losing battle," she said. Sr. Phiri said the Catholic Church believed that the relationship between Maria Sung and Archbishop Milingo had ended because it was not even 'blessed'. "There was never a marriage because the Archbishop was never dispensed from his priesthood," Sr. Phiri said.
"It cannot be a marriage because no one from his family or the Catholic knew about it." Sr. Phiri said she believed that Sung could have induced Archbishop Milingo into a marriage while she was her doctor for two years. She said Catholics had been praying for Archbishop Milingo to return to the Church following the marriage under the mass unification church over a year ago. "I want to believe that this is the time she started to twist her mind to satisfy her personal ego, not knowing that Archbishop Milingo was a man of God," said Sr. Phiri.
Sr. Prisca, a member of the congregation founded by Archbishop Milingo in 1969 in Lusaka, said the unification church was fighting the Catholics by 'using' Sung. She said the Catholic Church had been quiet for a long time but were forced to respond because of the continued attacks aimed at disintegrating it.
And according to a statement released by the Daughters of Redeemers of the Catholic, Maria Sung should have inquired on the implications of marrying a Catholic Bishop. "The said marriage is not even recognised nor registered by the USA law.
The Zambian civil nor traditional law, needless to mention the Ngoni tradition to which Archbishop Milingo belongs, does not recognise it," reads part of the statement. The statement further states that Sung has been married twice, the second man being an Italian from Naples.
The statement states that it is not up to Maria Sung to tell the Catholics how sacred marriage is because she has not explained how she left her first husband. The sisters have since appealed to Sung's advisers to help her accept reality. The sisters observed that Sung was using Archbishop Milingo's family to achieve her selfish goals.
"She should stop taking advantage of their lack of knowledge in the matter by giving them wrong information and dragging them wherever she is going to make people think and believe that they are in support of her when it is the opposite," read in part the sisters' statement.
Maria Sung told the press last week that she did not marry the Vatican but Archbishop Milingo whom she loved so much.