Archbishop's wife 'not pregnant'

ROME, Italy -- The saga of a Catholic archbishop who married in a ceremony led by the leader of the Moon cult has taken a new twist.

Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo's wife, who has not seen her husband for several days, on Friday ended a week of speculation by saying she was not pregnant

Milingo married Maria Sung, a South Korean, in May at a mass ceremony in New York led by the Rev Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church.

He subsequently visited Pope John Paul II and the Vatican this week released what it said was a letter from Milingo saying he was leaving Sung and returning to the Roman Catholic Church.

VIDEO Reverend Emmanuel Milingo's wife cries foul when Vatican releases letter renouncing marriage. CNN's Chris Burns reports (August 16) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

On Friday, Sung said at a press conference: "I'm relieved by the fact that I do not have to care about a child, so I can focus with all my spirit and heart to find my husband."

But she added that she was also disappointed by the result.

"The great hope of Monsignor Milingo and I was that God would have blessed us with a child," she said. "I'm sad he has not done so yet."

The couple's wedding scandalised the Catholic world -- Catholic clergymen take a vow of celibacy -- and last week Milingo, already in the Vatican's bad books for performing exorcisms and healing ceremonies, travelled to Rome to try to make amends with the Catholic Church.

The Zambian archbishop had said celibacy is poisoning the priesthood and that God's blessings were meant to be given through the family.

Sung says she has not heard from her husband since August 8, the day after his meeting with the pope.

The Vatican says the Milingo is in a period of "reflection."

Sung meanwhile travelled to Rome where she declared she might be pregnant by Milingo and said she was convinced the Vatican was keeping him prisoner.

On Tuesday she said she had begun a hunger strike, saying she would fast until death or until she saw her husband again.

"I think this hunger strike is the only way to find my husband," she said.

Meanwhile, the Rev Phillip Schanker, of Moon's Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Movement, said Sung had decided not to involve the police in a search for her husband.

Schanker said her intentions to file a missing person's report were "feeding the false impression that Maria is interested in fighting or attacking. She just wants to see her husband."

The Vatican has not disclosed Milingo's whereabouts, saying only that he is on a spiritual retreat and that he should be left alone to pray.