This article from Life Site News highlights how Cardinal Zen criticized the Synodal process in front of Pope Leo and the Cardinals at the Consistory. He said the entire process was manipulated, the outcomes decided ahead of time, and the power of Bishops minimized in favor of laity. He accused the organizers of calling to the Holy Spirit in an attitude of expectation of surprises. He wondered how someone can ask the Holy Spirit for surprises, given the continual guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the Church's History.
Fri Jan 9, 2026 - 3:12 pm EST (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, during an intervention before the extraordinary consistory of cardinals this week, slammed the Synod on Synodality’s final document and the entire synodal process for bypassing the bishops’ rightful authority, allowing for various interpretations, and suggesting that the Holy Spirit can change His mind. The 93-year-old Chinese cardinal’s intervention, first reported by the College of Cardinals Report, was made before Pope Leo XIV and 170 of his brother cardinals and focused on the accompanying note to the final document of the three-year Synod on Synodality. Cardinal Zen used the entire three minutes allotted to him to rebuke the document and the entire synodal process as “ironclad manipulation” for taking away bishops’ authority by bypassing them in favor of the laity and for having a predetermined outcome. The cardinal further stressed the contradiction of Pope Francis declaring …