Beijing ? A cleric well-regarded by the Vatican was installed as bishop of Beijing by China’s state-controlled Catholic Church, a move that officials said should help ease tense relations between the communist nation and the Holy See.

Joseph Li Shan was appointed to the influential post in China’s capital at a ceremony at the city’s 400-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Attendance was limited to several hundred priests, nuns, officials and ordinary Chinese Catholics invited by the Beijing diocese.

Dozens of uniformed police officers were positioned around the church, controlling access and keeping foreign journalists from entering the cathedral. Despite the security, the ceremony drew little public attention, with Catholics numbering more than 60,000 among Beijing’s 15 million people.

Li replaces Bishop Fu Tieshan, a Communist Party supporter and hard-liner toward the Vatican whose death in April provided an opportunity for the state-controlled church and Rome for rapprochement. When Li was named as Fu’s replacement in July, Vatican officials praised him, though said Beijing had not consulted Rome before his appointment.