HOLY SEES EXPRESSES SORROW AT GESTURE OF ARCHBISHOP MILINGO

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2001 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration this morning regarding Archbishop Milingo:

"Obviously, the Holy See has learned with great sorrow of the action taken by Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.

"By participating in the public marriage rite of the 'Moon' sect, he has di facto placed himself outside of the Catholic Church and has inflicted a serious wound on the communion which bishops above all must show with the Church.

"He cannot therefore be considered a bishop of the Catholic Church and the faithful are invited to draw the due consequences from his behavior and his actions, which constitute the presupposition for the pertinent canonical sanctions, which, in the near future, will be communicated to him and then made public."

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