VATICAN CITY — A Vatican summit led by Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed mandatory celibacy for priests, rebuffing a high-profile crusade by a married African archbishop who has been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.

In a statement after the three-hour meeting, the Vatican said: "The value of the choice of priestly celibacy, according to Catholic tradition, has been reaffirmed."

In announcing the summit last week, the Vatican said it would examine "the situation created by the disobedience of Monsignor Emmanuel Milingo."

Milingo, of Zambia, incurred automatic excommunication in September when he ordained four married American men as bishops in defiance of the Vatican. He already had drawn the Vatican's ire in 2001, when he took a South Korean woman as his wife in a group wedding ceremony of the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

There are estimated to be at least 100,000 married priests worldwide, with about 25,000 of them in the United States.

The summit statement also stressed "the need for solid human and Christian training for seminarians as well as already ordained priests."

The Rev. Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla., and editor of Ignatius Press, Benedict's U.S. publisher, said it was to be expected that the summit would reaffirm the celibacy requirement.

Asked if the Vatican's use of the word "value" of celibacy instead of "requirement" in the statement meant a shift on its stance, Fessio said: "I think there is some ambiguity which is probably intended so that the Church's position, which is firm and not going to change, will not appear to be simply an authoritarian response."

Proponents of easing the celibacy requirement say it could help ease the shortage of clergy in many parts of the world.

The Vatican requires celibacy of priests ordained under the Latin rite, although married men can become priests in the Eastern rite.