Ex-communicated bad boy of the priesthood Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is holding a conference for more than 1,000 married priests and their wives this Friday through Sunday in New York.

Designed to bring together a new group called 'Married Priests Now' (and to undoubtedly infuriate the Vatican, LEFT, even more), the convention aims to highlight the need for married priests to be returned to the "ock along with their spouses.

WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?

Chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the pope is examining the effects of Milingo's disobedience (although it's not as if they can ex-communicate him again). Milingo has been accused by the Vatican of "spreading division and confusion among the faithful".

Milingo responded by saying: "there is no more important healing than the reconciliation of 150,000 married priests with the Mother Church." As this is seriously doubtful, it's surely only a matter of time before a new religion is born.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

This is just one more chapter in the saga that is Archbishop Milingo.

Since the 75-year-old Zambian clergyman married Maria Sung (LEFT), a doctor of acupuncture from Korea in 2001, the Vatican has been in uproar. Three months later, Milingo agreed to give up his bride and return to his duties, but his campaign for married priests was only just beginning. A bishop must be "irreproachable and married only once", he says. Excellent.