Cardinal Zen and the Crisis of Synodality: Authority, Manipulation, and the Future of the Church
The Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals held in Rome on 7–8 January 2026 marked the first major test of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. Convened ostensibly to reflect on the mission of the Church and the meaning of synodality, the gathering unexpectedly became the stage for one of the most severe internal critiques of the post-conciliar ecclesial trajectory yet delivered within the College of Cardinals.
In a three-minute intervention delivered behind closed doors, Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, dismantled the theological, procedural, and ecclesiological foundations of the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024). His remarks, subsequently released with his permission, constitute not a protest from the margins but a juridical and doctrinal warning issued from the heart of the Church’s governing body.¹
Synodality as Managed Process, Not Episcopal Discernment
At the centre of Zen’s critique lies a fundamental distinction: authentic ecclesial discernment versus managed consultation. Catholic tradition understands episcopal discernment as inseparable from disputation, judgment, and authority exercised by bishops as successors of the apostles.² Zen argues that the synodal process systematically deprived bishops of this function.
The structure of the Synod—its facilitation methods, controlled interventions, curated summaries, and predetermined thematic trajectories—did not merely limit free discussion. It replaced discernment with what Zen bluntly calls “ironclad manipulation.”³ The bishops were not invited to judge competing theological claims but to ratify conclusions already framed through process management.
Such an approach directly contradicts the Church’s self-understanding as a divinely constituted society governed by real authority, not negotiated consensus. Pope Leo XIII warned against precisely this reduction of ecclesial governance when he taught that the Church is not a voluntary association but a visible body endowed with juridical power from Christ Himself.⁴
The Instrumentalisation of the Holy Spirit
Zen’s most severe language is reserved for the synod’s repeated invocation of the Holy Spirit as guarantor of its outcomes. Appeals to the Spirit were deployed not to illuminate doctrine but to shield novelty from scrutiny.⁵
In Catholic theology, the Holy Spirit is the guardian of Tradition, not its corrector. Pius IX condemned the idea that doctrine could be reshaped according to contemporary conscience or perceived pastoral need, warning that such reasoning dissolves the objective authority of revealed truth.⁶ To invoke the Spirit as the source of “surprises” that contradict two thousand years of received teaching is therefore not humility but theological incoherence.
Zen’s warning is clear: discernment ceases to be discernment when disagreement is rebranded as resistance to the Holy Spirit.
A Magisterium That Refuses to Govern
The Final Document of the Synod is assigned a deliberately ambiguous status. Pope Pope Francis described it as magisterial and binding, while simultaneously insisting that it is “not strictly normative” and open to regional interpretation and experimentation.⁷
Zen exposes the contradiction at the heart of this formulation. Authority that claims to bind while refusing to judge ceases to function as authority at all. Pius XII taught with precision that the Church’s unity depends upon clarity of doctrine and submission to legitimate pastors, not upon elastic interpretations negotiated at the local level.⁸
A magisterium that declines to govern does not foster communion; it institutionalises uncertainty.
From Catholic Communion to Anglican Fracture
Zen explicitly draws the parallel that many have avoided naming. The Anglican Communion’s collapse into mutually irreconcilable bodies was not caused by a single doctrinal dispute but by a synodal culture that prioritised process over truth and consultation over judgment.⁹
Once contradictory local interpretations are legitimised, no effective authority remains capable of resolving conflict. Leo XIII warned that when ecclesial authority is weakened or relativised, unity becomes merely nominal and eventually collapses.¹⁰ Zen’s concern is therefore not speculative but historically grounded.
The Orthodox Rebuff and the Loss of Credibility
Zen further notes the ecumenical cost of this experiment. Orthodox Churches have always affirmed synodality—but as the concrete authority of bishops acting together in fidelity to Tradition, not as an open-ended consultative process.¹¹
By hollowing out the Synod of Bishops—an institution established by Paul VI—while retaining its language, the Church risks forfeiting credibility in dialogue with those for whom synodality has never meant managed ambiguity. A Church uncertain of her own authority cannot convincingly witness to unity.¹²
A Deliberate Appeal to Pope Leo XIV
Cardinal Zen’s intervention must also be read as a direct appeal to the new pope. Delivered in his presence, following a private audience, and at the first extraordinary gathering of the College under his pontificate, the message is unmistakable.
The synodal framework now stands exposed. Pope Leo XIV inherits not a neutral process but a structural ambiguity that either must be corrected or will continue to erode episcopal authority, doctrinal coherence, and ecclesial unity. Neutrality is no longer possible.
Conclusion
Cardinal Zen did not accuse the Church of error lightly. He identified a system that replaces authority with facilitation, judgment with process, and Tradition with managed novelty. His warning is neither ideological nor nostalgic. It is magisterial in instinct and ecclesiological in substance.
A Church that invokes the Holy Spirit while refusing to judge doctrine does not walk together in truth. It drifts—sanctifying division in the language of communion.
Whether Pope Leo XIV will arrest that drift or institutionalise it remains the defining question of his pontificate.
¹ Joseph Cardinal Zen, Intervention at the Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals, 7–8 January 2026.
² Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, §§20–21.
³ Zen, Intervention, “On the Accompanying Note by the Holy Father Francis.”
⁴ Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (1896), §§9–10.
⁵ Zen, Intervention.
⁶ Pius IX, Quanta Cura (1864).
⁷ Pope Francis, Accompanying Note to the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality (2024).
⁸ Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (1943), §§40–42.
⁹ Lambeth Conference resolutions; Global Anglican Future Conference statements.
¹⁰ Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, §§15–16.
¹¹ John Zizioulas, Being as Communion, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
¹² Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, §66.
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