VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) –– Cardinal Joseph Zen has issued what appears to be a renewed criticism of the Synod on Synodality, questioning how the Catholic Church should be expected to “pray to the Holy Spirit to overturn the teachings He has passed on to us through the apostles.”
In a brief commentary published on his personal blog, Zen provided exegetical commentary on the Scriptural passages used in the lectionary of the Novus Ordo liturgy yesterday. Drawing from the Epistle and Gospel of St. John, Zen highlighted Christ’s teaching about the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the Catholic Church and used them to launch a warning about the synod.
The invocation of the Holy Spirit as guiding the recently concluded Synod on Synodality has been a contested point in recent months, given the synod’s openness to discussing issues already decided on by the Church.
“Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world,” wrote Zen, quoting directly from St. John’s first Epistle. “They belong to the world, and they speak from the world, and they listen to the deceiving spirit.”
Commenting on this, the Hong Kong bishop emeritus wrote that there are “true believers who obey God’s commandments,” but that the bishops can only strengthen the faith of their flock “with the help of the Holy Spirit.” Zen wrote:
There are also true believers who obey God’s commandments, and they also have the consciousness of faith, but the successors of the apostles, the college of bishops headed by the pope, can strengthen the faith of the faithful only with the help of the Holy Spirit.
With this said, Zen outlined that a synod, or “Council of Bishops” as he referred to it in the article, was supposed to “maintain” Catholic teaching and law, and not to “change” it:
The purpose of the Council of Bishops is nothing more than to “maintain” the doctrine and discipline of the Church, not to “change” it (see the Code of Canon Law). Are we to pray to the Holy Spirit to overturn the teachings He has passed on to us through the Apostles?
The cardinal’s comments come amid the backdrop of the synod’s final document, which Pope Francis approved, meaning that under his own 2018 Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio, once the final document of a synod “is expressly approved by the Roman Pontiff, the Final Document participates in the ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter.”
READ: Synod final text calls for continued ‘process’ with synodal ‘listening’ and dialogue
That document echoed the comments of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández in saying that “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open,” despite Catholic teaching infallibly stating that the matter is closed.
In light of this, and other topics of concern such as local episcopal authority regarding doctrine, a number of prelates have renewed their criticism about the synod.
Raymond Cardinal Burke stated the proposals of the synod’s final document were “extremely troublesome and dangerous.” Promotion of the question of female deacons “is going to simply generate more confusion and division to the harm of the Church’s mission,” Burke added.
Bishops emeriti Marian Eleganti and Joseph Strickland also firmly criticized the synod’s conclusions, with Eleganti warning that having local bishops decide on “teaching and discipline” would “be the end of the catholicity of the Church.”
Strickland, for his part, pronounced that “ This Synod on Synodality, I reject, because it’s not Catholic.”
The voices of these prelates are joined to that of Zen, who has himself been a consistent critic of the Synod on Synodality, issuing a number of letters and commentaries to his brother bishops in attempts to warn them of the dangers he perceives.
Shortly after the synod concluded in October, Zen attested that Pope Francis uses synods “to change the Church’s doctrines or disciplines each time rather than discuss how to safeguard these doctrines and disciplines.”
READ: Cardinal Zen: Pope Francis uses synods in attempt to ‘change Church’s doctrines’
He also noted that though lobbyists for the liberal agenda were disappointed on certain issues – including no formal approval of female deacons – the Vatican was pushing a “synodal Church” as the new manner of ecclesial life, meaning that such changes could happen in the future.
“Everyone knows the Pope believes in ‘process’ (time is greater than space),” he wrote. “What could not be achieved in this assembly, can be achieved in the process that begins now. The Synod has ended, but the Synodal Church begins now! We have to live in it!”