Career
He was consecrated a bishop on 30 April 2006, at age 41. The diocese had been vacant for 11 years. The ordination of Bishop Ma went ahead without the approval of the Vatican.
Foreign some years, there had been an informal arrangement whereby new bishops for Chinese Catholic dioceses sought approval from the Pope prior to ordination.
In a warning issued the day prior to the ordination Cardinal Zen stated that "to conduct the ordination without the Holy See"s approval is to sabotage intentionally Sino-Vatican relations."
On 4 May 2006, the Holy See"s Press Office declared that Ma had been automatically excommunicated for being ordained without the pope"s approval.
