Salvation outside church

United Press International’s religion editor Uwe Siemon-Netto sprang a surprise when over dinner at Casa Batllo, one of the finest specimens of Gaudi architecture in downtown Barcelona, he shared his just-received information about the marriage of a Catholic Archbishop from Zimbabwe. Clayton Peel, a young executive in Zimbabwe’s mainstream print media, who shared our table, disputed such a possibility as he knew every Catholic bishop in his country. As it turned out, the UPI man’s information was correct except for the nativity of the Archbishop, who hailed from Zambia. Later that night when I heard the septuagenarian Archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo’s name as the daring bridegroom who has invited excommunication, it rang a bell.

For those who have read David Willey’s God’s Politician, which is easily the most formidable case against Pope John Paul II ‘‘as a spiritual dictator’’, Milingo is no stranger. In his much-acclaimed book, the veteran BBC correspondent, who has reported Vatican affairs under three Popes, has given a thumbnail account of Milingo, the extraordinary. That’s precisely why the Archbishop’s marriage with Maria Sung, a 43-year-old Moonie, cannot be dismissed out of hand as simply the failure of an old man to honour his vow of celibacy. There’s certainly more to his marriage than meets the eye.

Few other bishops have in recent times caused as much trouble to the Vicar of Christ as the deposed Catholic Archbishop of Lusaka, who, born a Nguni, was raised in the warrior tradition. At age 12, after four years as a cattle herder, he ran away to join a mission school. He never looked back since then as he went on building up a formidable reputation as an authentic voice of African Christianity drawing upon the ancient spiritual traditions of what the Europeans derisively called the ‘dark continent’. But his efforts to Africanise institutions, practices and attitudes raised eyebrows in the Vatican, though thousands flocked to his healing ministry, dubbed by the church as ‘mumbo-jumbo’. Milingo was forcibly brought to Rome, where it seemed to him that the days of the Inquisition had returned. Writes Willey, ‘‘Archbishop Milingo’s predicament was first brought to my attention in April 1982, when an African student carried a scribbled handwritten note from him to my Rome office. The Archbishop pleaded for help, explaining that he was being held incommunicado at the monastery of the Passionist fathers, just behind the Colosseum. He said he was permitted neither visitor, nor tele- phone calls.’’

Of course, reconciliation came but much later and at a terrible cost — Milingo was cut off from his Zambian roots. In Rome, his healing ministry attracted the faithful and he continued to espouse the African cause. He would often say that ‘‘if God made a mistake in creating me an African, it is not yet evident to me.’’ The charge of exorcism that the church flung at him does not carry conviction when George Weigel, the Pontiff’s ‘official’ biographer, recounts instances in his Witness to Hope of his subject turning to the Capuchin stigmatic, Padre Pio, to solve some of his medical problems. Naturally enough, believers in Milingo’s ‘curative’ ability wondered why the church should adopt different yardsticks — one for the white and another for the rest. That is Milingo’s central concern.

One look at a map of the world is enough for Europe to look dwarfed by giant continents to east, south and west. Yet, a rapid run over world history will tell us that this dwarf, by its intelligence and energy, has acted as guide throughout our planet. Nonetheless, a last-minute glance at the present shows the phasing-out of European hegemony and spotlighting of new groups of actors now taking the stage: the peoples of the Third World. On this premise, the Swiss Capuchin theologian Walter Buhlmann prophesied The Coming of the Third Church for which the church came down heavily on him. But in the Roman curia, the Third Church is still under-represented except perhaps in the Congregation for the Evangelisation of the Nations. While the migration of the church towards the Southern hemisphere is a reality, a cursory reading of the names constituting the electoral college that will choose Pope John Paul’s successor shows that the Catholic church is yet to recognise the ground reality. Its concerns are different. On a visit to Montserrat, in the outskirts of Barcelona, famous for its ‘Black Virgin’, the ‘Brother’ (he has some more time to decide whether to become a priest) who took us around the centuries-old Benedictine monastery said during the last 14 years, only two out of the hundreds of postulants who had their initiation there came back to take up the priestly vocation. But this serious crisis in the European church is not reflected in the construction work on the ‘Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia’, which began in 1882 and will, hopefully, be completed in 80-100 years. What is now hotly debated is whether the cross that will stand above the central dome in honour of Christ should be 28 feet or 30 feet high. When completed, it may rival many Cathedral churches in Europe but nobody is bothered whether there will be enough people to fill its nave for the Sunday mass.

Pope John Paul could have brought about reforms in the church to attune it to the needs of the day by bravely addressing such issues as priestly celibacy, ordination of women and making parishes congregation-driven, rather than priest-driven. It would have implied recognition of the fact that continents like Asia and Africa have a civilization older and richer than European. In other words, the Pope was expected to take forward the message of Vatican II which for the first time recognised the possibility of salvation for non-Christians. After all, he as Bishop Karol Wojtyla had played a major role in the drafting of many documents of Vatican II.

It would have meant taking a lenient view of Sri Lankan theologian Tissa Balasurya’s interpretation of the Immaculate Conception and not condemning hundreds of millions of people, who find spiritual solace outside the church. After all, the gospel of Christ brought freedom from human regulations and directed men towards the heavenly Father and the Kingdom above, but did not demand a break with the synagogue. What should have followed from this is an attempt to Christianise Hinduism, rather than convert a few Hindus. It’s not that it has not happened. Thanks to the spreading of the gospel by the Protestants at a time when the Bible was equivalent to the Koran for most Catholics, there have been from Swami Vivekananda to Dr Radhakrishnan to Badrinath Chaturvedi, many Hindu philosophers and writers who have presented Christ with great understanding. Little does the church realise that as it remains doctrinaire debating the size of the cross, the Milingos seek fulfilment outside of the church and cathedrals become tourist, rather than spiritual, centres and monasteries are closed by the dozen.

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