Emmanuel Milingo, the archbishop who shocked the Vatican in May by marrying a woman chosen for him by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, said today he was returning to the Catholic Church but loved his wife as a sister.
Archbishop Milingo, who had not been seen in public for nine days, appeared on Italy's main evening news broadcast to read a letter he had tried to send his Korean wife, Maria Sung.
The words of the Holy Father (Pope John Paul) - 'in the name of Jesus Christ come back to the Catholic Church' - moved me. My deepest desire is to obey the Holy Father and submit to the laws of the Church, the Zambian archbishop read.
"I love you as a sister and I will continue to pray for you for the rest of my life," he added.
The Vatican threatened to excommunicate Archbishop Milingo after he married Sung at a mass wedding organised by Moon's Unification Church. He turned up in Rome this month to make amends.