Beijing appointed a bishop not recognised by the Holy See as head of the mainland's Catholic clergy yesterday in a move likely to jeopardise a continuing Sino-Vatican diplomatic dialogue.
But Beijing also selected a Vatican-approved bishop to be the new leader of the state-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association - a body denounced by the Holy See in 2007 as being incompatible with church doctrine.
As the eighth national congress of Catholics closed yesterday, Bishop Joseph Ma Yinglin - from the Kunming diocese in Yunnan province, who was unilaterally ordained by Beijing without papal approval in 2006 - was selected as president of the Chinese Catholic Bishops Conference.
The bishops' conference and the association are supposed to be the highest governing bodies of the mainland Catholic Church.
But it is the association which holds real power, and Bishop Johan Fang Xingyao of the Linyi diocese in Shandong - a bishop recognised by both the Vatican and Beijing - was selected as its chairman.
The move, which surprised many observers, has added further uncertainty to Sino-Vatican relations which have been deteriorating rapidly in recent months following the ordination of Joseph Guo Jincai by Beijing as bishop of the Chengde diocese in Hebei last month without Vatican approval.
For months, the Vatican has warned mainland bishops against attending the national congress, which is seen as a breach of church doctrine. But 313 representatives - 45 bishops, 158 priests, 23 nuns and 87 lay people, took part in the elections which confirmed Ma and Fang yesterday.
