The authorities are trying to keep out of the public eye during Easter week an underground Chinese bishop at the center of a controversial deal between Beijing and the Vatican, according to people working in his office.

A Rome-based news agency has reported that Guo Xijin was briefly detained on Monday because he refused to celebrate the upcoming Easter Mass with the government-approved bishop, but people working in his parish office said the aim was to keep him out of the spotlight during the days around Easter, which is celebrated this coming Sunday.

Bishop Guo, 59, of the Mindong diocese in central-eastern China, was taken to the city of Xiamen. He was allowed to return home on Wednesday for family reasons, but members of his staff said he was expected to resume his forced vacation later this week.

He had been asked by Rome to step aside in favor of a Communist Party-approved bishop in the region. This was meant to be a key plank in Rome’s efforts to heal a decades-long rift in the Roman Catholic Church in China, which is divided between underground worshipers, priests and bishops loyal to Rome and Beijing-approved churches that some worshipers consider to be illegitimate.