Mr Milingo is in a condition of "progressive, open break with communion with the Church," the Vatican said in a statement. The four men claim affiliation with the breakaway Synod of Old Catholic Churches. They are also automatically excommunicated for being ordained, the Vatican said. In its announcement of the excommunication, the Vatican accused Mr Milingo of "sowing division and dismay among the faithful." 

Mr Milingo, 76, has long had a troubled relationship with the Vatican. In 2001, he was married to a South Korean acupuncturist chosen for him by the Rev Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, in a group wedding ceremony in New York. Upon appeal from Pope John Paul II a few months later, he renounced that union.

Mid this year, Mr Milingo reappeared in the United States and said he was living with his wife in the Washington, DC area. He gained a strong following in a church where he had been stationed near Rome because of his reputation as an exorcist.

But Catholic officials accused him of promoting African indigenous beliefs by performing mass exorcisms and healing ceremonies. The defiant ordination of the men appeared to be the last straw for Rome. Prelates "at various levels of the church tried in vain to contact Archbishop Milingo, to persuade him from going ahead with scandal-provoking actions, above all among the faithful who followed his pastoral ministry in favour of the poor and sick," the Vatican said.

"Considering that Pope Benedict had, even recently, shown him understanding, the Holy See waited with vigilant patience to watch the evolution of the events, which, unfortunately led Archbishop Milingo to be in a condition of irregularity and of progressive, open break with communion with the Church, first by being married and then with the ordination of four bishops."

Under Vatican teaching, the authority to name bishops rests with the Pope. The Church also requires celibacy of its priests ordained under the Latin rite. The Vatican added that it does not recognise the ordination of the four and warned that it will not do so in the future.

"Considering that Pope Benedict had, even recently, shown him understanding, the Holy See waited with vigilant patience to watch the evolution of the events, which, unfortunately led Archbishop Milingo to be in a condition of irregularity and of progressive, open break with communion with the Church, first by being married and then with the ordination of four bishops."

The Holy See had been hoping that Mr Milingo would "change his mind and return to full communion with the Pope," the statement added. "Unfortunately, the latest events pushed away such hopes."

Previously, the Vatican said that Mr Milingo violated church law when he created an association of married priests and when he celebrated Mass with married clergy. Mr Milingo was born in Zambia in 1930 and was educated in St Mary's Presbyterial School in Chipata and attended the Kasina and Kachebere seminaries.

He was ordained in 1958, and served as parish priest in Chipata from 1963 to 1966, when he founded the Zambia Helpers Society. 

He was the secretary of Mass Media at the Zambia Episcopal Conference from 1966 to 1969, when he founded the first of three orders, the Daughters of the Redeemer. In 1969 Pope Paul VI consecrated him as the Bishop of the archdioceses of Lusaka, as one of Africa's youngest bishops. He served there for 14 years. In the 1970s Mr Milingo became famous as an exorcist and a powerful spiritual healer.

In 1983, he was called to Rome because of controversy over his "non-conventional" healing ministry. In the Vatican he served on the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.  About himself, Mr Milingo was once quoted saying: "I don't want to be put on a pedestal. I lead a simple life. But when it comes to prayer, I'm actually calling on the name of Jesus.

When I pray, I pray with such confidence that I'm sure the Lord is with me." He is a gifted singer, as well as the author of several books. The recent case of a priest excommunicated from the Catholic church in Kenya is Father Godfrey Shiundu. Father Shiundu, formerly a priest at the Catholic Church in Kitale was suspended from the church in 2002.

Later in the same year, he was excommunicated from the church by the Kitale Catholic Bishop Maurice Crowley. He founded the Reformed Catholic Church – a breakaway church, where he is now in charge of St Lawrence. In May this year, Father Shiundu married his long-time girlfriend Ms Stella Nangila at a colourful wedding presided over by Dr Karl Raimund Rodig who is the archbishop of the Reformed Catholic Church and Apostolic church in Bikeke, Trans Nzoia.