IT IS Monday in Rome and Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo of Zambia is holding a once monthly regular service of worship in the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua, in a city suburb. From the back of the church, someone is shouting and howling but nobody pays attention.
Every now and then, the service is punctuated by cries of "bravo" from the rest of the congregation. At one point, the archbishop blesses some of the faithful, close to the altar. One young woman becomes so overcome with emotion when the archbishop sprinkles holy water on her that she attempts to embrace him and has to be restrained. Three people are holding her back and in the confusion, all four fall.
When the African archbishop offers a prayer of "liberation and healing" for all those caught up in the spell of "the evil eye, of black magic" one young man falls flat out on the church floor, apparently frothing at the mouth. His minder, perhaps his father, puts a jacket under his head and leaves him to lie where he has fallen.
Such scenes are normal for a service presided over by the controversial archbishop, a priest who believes that he has a charism for healing, for the "laying on of hands" and also for exorcism. Nor is the 66 year old prelate alone in his belief, since people come to him from all over the world for help, for spiritual guidance and, primarily, for exorcism.
This week, and not for the first time, the archbishop finds himself at the centre of controversy following two authoritative suspensions" issued separately against him by no less than the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan. Cardinal Martini has banned the archbishop from holding his healing services in the Milan archdiocese while Cardinal Sodano has called on him to refrain from "paranormal" liturgical activity.
Archbishop Milingo has been a "problem figure" for the Vatican for nearly 20 years since his days as archbishop of Lusaka. Following a period of study as a young man at the Ann Arbour centre in Michigan, home of the charismatic movement, the archbishop became convinced that his faith healing "gift" formed a natural bridge between Christian doctrine and African culture "That which I do, I do it in the name of the Lord," he said this week.
The Vatican, however, has long had reservations about the archbishop. Following complaints from Zambia, many of them from expatriate missionaries, Archbishop Milingo was first banned from holding healing services before finally being summoned to Rome, where in 1983 he "resigned" his archdiocese. He was appointed by Pope John Paul II as "special delegate" to the Pontifical Commission for Migration and Tourism. (Curia figures suggest that this was a classic case of sideways promotion since the archbishop's subsequent contribution to the commission's affairs has been minimal).
Ironically, that "appointment" 13 years ago generated such international media interest in Archbishop Milingo that he became (and has remained) a minor celebrity, attracting followers from all over the world.
Furthermore, some 4,512 signatures were gathered in just three days from Milan based supporters of the archbishop, urging Cardinal Martini to withdraw his "ban".
For the church, such popularity right on its doorstep for a less than orthodox son is embarrassing. Curia figures explained this week that objections to Archbishop Milingo are not so much "liturgical" as "doctrinal". In other words, the sensational elements of his services are not the problem.
Rather, the problem concerns an over simplistic teaching of the faith which suggests the Devil is at work wherever and whenever there is a serious problem or suffering, freeing the individual from personal responsibility and trusting all to divine intervention (in this case, exorcism).
If Archbishop Milingo was a European, the matter might end there. Being African, however, he argues that his healing merely fits in with the logic of many African traditional faiths which acknowledge the immediate presence of the spiritual. For his critics, Archbishop Milingo is at best a maverick, at worst a charlatan. For his supporters, he is a healer.
Whatever the particular merits of Archbishop Milingo, however, his case addresses the issue of "inculturisation", or Africanisation, of what the Pope in 1985 called the problem of "how to be fully Christian and at the same time fully African". The involvement of priests in tribal killings in Rwanda two years ago, much more than the relatively harmless case of Archbishop Milingo, suggests the problem remains.