On June 29. Beijing ordained Father Paul Lei Shiyin as the bishop of Leshan, Sichuan province, ignoring warnings from Pope Benedict that the priest was unacceptable for 'proven and very grave reasons'.
While the Vatican has never announced the reason for Lei's unacceptability, Catholic media have reported that he fathered a child with a woman with whom he had been having an affair. Lei has refused to comment on these reports, saying only that he did not enjoying being the subject of 'speculation'.
'Nowhere else in the Catholic world would he have become a bishop,' said Gerard O'Connell, who writes for the Vatican Insider, a website run by La Stampa, a daily Italian newspaper, but Beijing officials insisted on going ahead.
Angered by the obvious slight, on July 4 the Vatican hit back at Lei's ordination with a rare public announcement of latae sententiae (or 'sentence given') - in effect, excommunication - saying that Lei's voluntary participation in the ceremony had violated canonical law.
The incident has contributed to the growing rift between Beijing and the Vatican for control of China's estimated 12 million Catholics, a struggle that is threatening to divide the Catholic Church in China.
'It's a very sensitive time,' said a scholar in Hong Kong who monitors the church in China. 'In my opinion, there will be a showdown - things are coming to a conclusion.
'I've been in this business for 20 years, and I've never seen it get to this point before,' the academic said. 'Both sides are playing all the cards they have. One of the two will win everything.'