Seoul (AsiaNews) – Mgr Emmanuel Milingo is in Seoul to study the religion of the Unification Church, founded by the Rev Moon Sun-myung. Excommunicated in September of last year for ordaining four Catholic bishops, Milingo showed up at a Unification Church gathering held in a central Seoul hotel on January 30, urging in an address that the Vatican allow Catholic priests to marry.

He is reportedly staying at a hotel near Seoul.

“The reason why we have been mum regarding his visit here is so as not to stoke the anger of Catholics," a source close to the Unification Church said. “[Milingo] will appear at an international academic gathering to be held at the Marriott Hotel in Seoul between February 20 and 23, and at the birthday party for Moon on the final day of the event.”

Milingo, 76, has already taken part in other events sponsored by the Reverend Moon, including the 2001 collective marriage in which he married South Korean Maria Sung, a member of the Unification Church.

After a period of reconciliation with the Catholic Church, he ordained four priests members of the “Married Priests Now”, a movement he founded in July 2006, as bishops on September 24, 2006. Two days later he incurred excommunication latae sententiae.