Peter Jennings, the press secretary to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, has apologised after he stunned guests by verbally abusing a 22-year-old student during the dessert course, repeatedly calling him "a ----". He is also alleged to have called Matthew Tye, who is half-Vietnamese, "a peasant".
The timing of the outburst threatens to embarrass Archbishop Nichols, who will be installed as the Archbishop of Westminster on Thursday.
It also comes only one month after Mr Jennings called a Telegraph reporter "a total ----" for writing a story about letters sent by two English bishops complaining that Father Nichols would be a divisive choice for the job.
Mr Tye has written to the Archbishop to complain about Mr Jennings's behaviour and has also reported the matter to the police.
The press officer has already been dismissed as a spokesman for the campaign for the beatification of Cardinal Newman, the 19th century Anglican cleric who converted to Catholicism.
The altercation unfolded at the college of Blackfriars during an event organised by the Aquinas Institute, a religious institution. Among the distinguished clergy to overhear the tirade was the British Ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Campbell, who gave a lecture on 'faith and foreign policy'.
Mr Tye is a student previously known to Mr Jennings through a work placement with the Birmingham Oratory. In his letter to Archbishop Nichols, Mr Tye claimed he was called "a ----" by Mr Jennings more than twenty times as well as "a worthless piece of ----" and "a low-life peasant".
Mr Jennings yesterday said he "deeply regretted the incident and any embarrassment caused" but said Mr Tye's account was an exaggeration. "I may have called him a ---- once or twice, I don't recollect how many times, but I think it's a storm in a tea cup. In fact, it is a typhoon in a tea spoon."
Senior college officials have described Mr Jennings' behaviour as "a grave abuse of their hospitality".
Mr Jennings has written a letter of apology to Mr Tye, in which he argues that he was provoked by overhearing the student referring to his dismissal as a spokesman for the Newman cause. Mr Tye denies he ever made such a comment and said he had not received a reply from the Archbishop Nichols.
It is understood senior figures at Westminster Cathedral working for the previous Archbishop, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, had expressed serious concerns about the possibility of Mr Jennings taking up a permanent position with Archbishop Nichols.
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