Friday, September 29, 2006

Fun with Archbishop SillyHead

I remember reading about this guy, Archbishop Milingo, a while back, but the most recent situation has been most entertaining and useful for exposing some of the errors (of which there are many) of the Roman Catholic Church.
My favorite part of his story WAS that he had been, while a Roman archbishop, married in one of the notorious mass marriages performed by Sun Myung Moon, he of Moonie Unification Church and "where Jesus Christ failed in His mission, I will succeed" fame.
While considering recently the reasons for which Milingo has been excommunicated from Rome, a few things occurred to me. In particular, I was reflecting on how completely messed up Rome's priorities are and how LONG it took for Milingo to get excommunicated.
So he gets married under the direction of a well-known cult leader. Now, stop right there. At MY church, that would be more than enough to earn a visit from several church elders and members, call to repentance in hand. Upon refusal to repent (ie, from associating himself, as a leadership figure, which he is as an Archbishop, w/ Sun Myung Moon), he'd be disfellowshiped w/ sorrow. But disfellowshiped he would be.
But not w/ Rome. A married clergy is clearly COMPLETELY intolerable, so rather than looking into changing that groundless doctrine (how could they? It would entail such a radical admission of wrong teaching that their whole "We're The Church, believe us" structure would sustain a harsh blow), they call upon the guy TO GET DIVORCED!
Wait just a sec here...
Oh wait, that's just the Bible. Moving on...

We also read that he's known for "mass exorcisms" and "causing things to happen" such as blessing a glass of water over the phone to cure a woman so that she could start lactating. Um.....K. Once again, you teach that kind of stuff as an authority figure at my church and refuse to repent, you're gone w/in a couple of months. But not Rome.

And now, what is he FINALLY excommunicated for? For ordaining 4 married priests! And then he has the gall to go and quote the Apostle Paul to the Vatican, as if they would or should care.
I would add this to what he quoted as well.

So... let me get this straight. An Archbishop who conducts mass exorcisms and other "healings," who does the equivalent of sending "chi" over the telephone, who associates himself closely w/ a well-known and freaky cult leader, and who clearly does not do enough to distance himself and his teaching from pagan beliefs, gets excommunicated by Rome for ordaining priests according to the biblical model. When you think about Rome and her history, though, it's pretty much par for the course.