John Allen lays out the connections and probable motivations.

This tissue of connections between Moon, the Unification Movement, African-American clergy, and the broader spread of Moon’s message helps explain why the Vatican has taken the Milingo phenomenon more seriously than some believe it warrants. Most recently, a Nov. 14 communiqué from the Vatican Press Office indicated that an unusual meeting of Pope Benedict with all the cardinals who head Vatican offices had been summoned “following the disobedience of Monsignor Emmanuel Milingo.”

The deep worry in Rome, exaggerated or not, is that Milingo’s appeal for a married priesthood, combined with his use of exorcism and traditional spiritual practices, in tandem with Moon’s money and a message of racial harmony, could prove a formidable competitor to the Catholic Church in Africa, and among black Catholics and other minority groups elsewhere.

On Moon’s side, his outreach to minorities, especially to Africa-Americans, explains why the Unification Movement has gone out of its way to court Milingo and to back his initiatives.

Milingo, it should be recalled, his repeatedly said that he still understands himself to be a Roman Catholic, and has no desire to launch his own church. He’s also said he would like to promote better relations between the Catholic Church and the Unification Movement. Moon’s Unification Movement likewise says it is not a separate denomination, and presents a message of harmony across religious divides. Yet the intersection of these two men’s agenda creates a synergy hardly likely to reassure Catholic officials about their intentions.