Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is not a shy retiring flower by any stretch of the imagination. And his refusal to stop calling himself a witch doctor is…well, a little disturbing, to say the least.

But the man is a bishop taking on the Vatican. You’ve got to give him props for that.

Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who was excommunicated Tuesday, said he does not accept his excommunication and will continue his campaign to persuade the Vatican to allow married priests. The 76-year-old archbishop married a Korean acupuncturist in 2001.

“We do not accept this excommunication and lovingly return it to His Holiness, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, to . . . withdraw it and join us in recalling married priests to service once again,” said excommunicated Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo in a written statement read for him at a news conference at Imani Temple in Northeast Washington. (Indian Catholic)

Milingo has committed the grave sin of asking the Church to allow priests to marry (so they’re not tempted to pork young boys) and calling the Pope out on several other issues. Pope Benedict, as a former leader of the Inquisition (oh, I’m sorry, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), is not disposed to take this lyin’ down. So he’s pulled out the worst weapon of the Church–

No, not child abuse. Excommunication.

And Milingo is still sticking to his guns, throwing the excommunication back at the Pope politely but firmly.

Priests had been permitted to marry during the First Millennium, but marriage was condemned by the Church at the Second Lateran Council in 1139.

Milingo said the Vatican’s stand had led to crisis in the church, with the average age of priests at about 74 years.

“In 20 years there will be few priests left,” he said in a statement. “Who is going to provide the sacraments and the Eucharist to the people?”

He said many priests forced to leave the priesthood because

they married would be willing to return to the ministry.

“There is a desperate need for priests now and in the future, but we have almost 25,000 married priests in the United States and almost 150,000 worldwide who are not being called to service because of a Medieval, church-imposed regulation that priests be celibate,” Milingo said. (Washington Post)

My God, look at that. It was actual common sense, and it probably whooshed in one Vatican ear and out the other. Poor Benedict. First he has to deal with uppity Muslims taking offense when he denigrates their religion, and now this. I wonder if he prays for a time machine to take him back to the 1400s.

Come to think of that, maybe we’d all be better off if one showed up. But that’s just humble opinion.