Cui is the fourth bishop to be consecrated since October, when the Vatican and China renewed the controversial agreement for a further two years.

Mainland China’s 12 million Catholics are split between an “underground” church that looks to the Pope for authority, and state-run churches controlled by the government’s Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). The Holy See said it hoped that the 2018 pact would end the schism.

Cui’s ordination in Wuhan is significant. The city in 1958 appointed China’s first Catholic bishops without papal approval, and the diocese had been without a bishop for 14 years, with Cui having served as its acting head since 2012.

According to Catholic news outlet Asianews.it, the previous administrator, Shen Guoan, had been forced to resign because he was deemed “not loyal enough for Beijing”. Cui, who is trusted by Beijing, is also the head of the CCPA of Hubei province and deputy secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, both overseen by the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.

The Sino-Vatican pact was hailed as a breakthrough in relations between China and the Vatican after diplomatic ties broke off in 1951. However, it does not address diplomatic relations nor the legal status of the Chinese Catholic Church, and its precise terms remain secret.

China’s deal with the Catholic Church: ‘selling out’ or pathway to better relations?

It put an official end to Beijing appointing bishops without papal approval, while allowing the head of a foreign religious organisation to have a say over selection of Catholic leaders in the country.

In 1958, Dong Guangqing was named bishop for Hankou diocese and Yuan Wenhua was appointed for Wuchang diocese without the Holy See’s approval. Those dioceses, along with Hanyang, were grouped together by Beijing as the diocese of Wuhan.

In July, the Vatican announced the ordination of Anthony Li Hui as the coadjutor bishop of Pingliang diocese in Lanzhou, according to the Catholic News Agency.