Married Priests Now!

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Married Priests Now! (MPN) is an advocacy group headed by Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, a Zambian prelate. MPN is a liberal Catholic organization calling for relaxing the rules concerning marriage in the Catholic priesthood. Milingo believes, "There is no more important healing than the reconciliation of 150,000 married priests with the 'Mother Church,' and the healing of a Church in crisis through renewing marriage and family."^[1]

Archbishop Milingo garnered world attention in October 2006 when he elevated four married men (Rev. George Augustus Stallings Jr. of Washington; Peter Paul Brennan of New York; Patrick Trujillo of Newark, New Jersey; and Joseph Gouthro of Las Vegas, Nevada) to the position of bishop.^[2] Milingo reportedly plans to hold a meeting in December 2006 of more than 1,000 married Catholic priests, in New York.^[3] At a MPN conference in New Jersey, Milingo admitted that the group is funded by the Unification Church,^[4] led by Reverend Sun Myung Moon who said in 1993 „We must pull the Christians out of their churches“ and „My enemies are America and Christianity.“^[5]

Due to Milingo’s excommunication and Moon connection, two groups of former Catholic priests, who are pushing for a married priesthood, have issued warnings against MPN.^[6]

[edit] Excommunication

According to Catholic Canon Law, the act of creating a bishop without the permission of the Pope incurs an automatic excommunication.^[7] When other groups, such as the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), elevated a bishop without the permission of Rome, both the Bishop and Archbishop incurred the same penalty of excommunciation. The notable difference with this case is that the status of the Married Priests Now bishops will not be acknowledged as valid and priests ordained by these bishops will not be considered priests.^[2] The Bishops and priests of other organizations, such as the SSPX, are deemed as valid but illicit.