An Italian man dressed up in fake ecclesiastical robes was escorted out of a meeting of Catholic cardinals by Swiss Guards on Monday after trying to sneak into the closed-door Vatican meeting.

The man, whose real name is Ralph Napierski, had told reporters that his name was "Basilius" and that he was a member of the "Italian Orthodox Church", which does not exist.

Before he was discovered, the "bishop" told reporters that Catholic bishops had "made a mistake by moving priests" who were accused of paedophilia around different parishes.

He was wearing a purple scarf around his waist that was similar to the sashes warn by senior Catholic prelates and he shook hands and chatted with priests and cardinals arriving at the meeting.

Napierski claims on his blog that he is a founder of the Corpus Dei Catholic order. He also says he invented "a system to enable persons to control computers with the power of thoughts".

He also promotes something called "Jesus Yoga".