LUSAKA - A former Zambian archbishop says he wants the Roman Catholic Church to pay him a pension for the 23 years he worked in Italy after he was defrocked for consecrating married men as bishops.

LUSAKA - A former Zambian archbishop says he wants the Roman Catholic Church to pay him a pension for the 23 years he worked in Italy after he was defrocked for consecrating married men as bishops.

Emmanuel Milingo, who has practised exorcism and advocates optional celibacy for priests, told the private Radio Phoenix station on Saturday he was still a fully ordained Catholic cleric.

On Thursday the Vatican announced the defrocking of Milingo.

He had been excommunicated in 2006 for "his increasing split" with church rules for consecrating four married priests as bishops.

In 2001 he shocked the Catholic establishment by marrying a Korean acupuncturist in a mass "Moony" wedding ceremony in New York, presided over by the founder of the Unification Church himself, Reverend Sun Myung Moon. - Sapa-AFP