Pope Benedict XVI met on Thursday with the Vatican hierarchy to discuss calls for the Roman Catholic Church to allow priests to marry and fears of a schism over the issue.
The pope met with 20 Vatican department heads to "analyse the situation" created by the "disobedience" of Zambian archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who was ex-communicated in September for ordaining four married men as bishops, a Vatican spokesman said.
The rare three-hour meeting examined demands to scrap the celibacy requirement for the Catholic priesthood and to readmit priests who left the ministry to wed.
The Vatican press office said a statement on the meeting would be issued later in the day.
Milingo, founder of the "Married Priests Now!" movement, said in Washington after his ex-communication: "We have nearly 25,000 married priests in the United States and 150,000 in the world who are not called to serve in this medieval Church that requires celibacy."
The former archbishop of the Zambian capital Lusaka, who stunned the Church in 2001 by getting married to a South Korean acupuncturist in a mass "Moonies"-style ceremony, says some 1,000 married priests planned to attend a rally in New York next month.
Milingo wrote an open letter to the pope on November 4 asking that married priests and bishops be gradually "reinstated into the fabric of our Church."
In the face of a world-wide shortage of priests, he wrote, "there are 150,000 married priests who are ready and willing to serve."
"A new Catholic Church is forming with or without your blessing," he warned.
Milingo has widespread support among American Catholics, 63 percent of whom favour allowing priests to marry, which could encourage more men to enter the priesthood, according to a Gallup poll.
The number of priests shrank by 28 percent in the United States, while the number of Catholics grew 33 percent between 1975 and 2004, Gallup said.
Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was his predecessor John Paul II's top doctrinal enforcer as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, and has been expected to consolidate his friend and mentor's arch-conservative line since his election as pope in April 2005.
A married Italian priest, Father Giuseppe Serrone, prayed in St Peter's Square on Wednesday evening for the "unity of the Church."
"The Church is spiritual. It is not made up just of walls and institutions. We want to make a symbolic gesture to help those who must make choices vis-à-vis Monsignor Milingo and the married priest movement," Serrone told AFP, adding that he spoke for "many" priests who left the Italian Church to marry.
After leaving his north Roman parish in 2001, Serrone helped found "Married Priests Now!" with Milingo.