Cardinal Ulrich Steiner's words provide yet another example of the fiercely boiling civil war now erupting in the Church, as cardinals publicly debate about the nature of the Church and Her doctrines, following the openness and relativistic terms of the Synod on Synodality.
(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Ulrich Steiner from the Amazon region has condemned “resistance” to the Synod on Synodality as being the “rejection of dialogue.”
While participating in a conference hosted by the University of San Diego recently, Steiner presented his thoughts on the recently concluded Synod on Synodality via video-link. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Manaus – who presides over an area with approximately 1.6 million Catholics – is a notable proponent of the synod and its ideologies, being very much in line with Pope Francis’ vision for the event.
Steiner described resistance to the synod process as being a “rejection of dialogue":
The challenge, as a Church, to listen to the cries of the people and to exercise with transparency their prophetic role of always returning to the source, to the Gospel, to the Kingdom of God.
Any resistance to this path has nothing to do with the right to disagree, but with the rejection of dialogue.
Similar words were already uttered in a post-synod interview given by Cardinal Cristóbal Lopez Romero of the Archdiocese of Rabat, Morocco. Romero praised the Synod on Synodality’s conclusions as a “prophetic sign” for the world, adding that opponents of its decisions are “morally obligated to support” them.
Turning 75 in November, Steiner was created cardinal by Pope Francis in August 2022 after having been made Archbishop of Manaus in 2019.
His rise to prominence has been in tandem with the Vatican focus given to issues pertaining to the Amazon, especially in light of the Amazon Synod of 2019. This includes particular attention to climate change topics along with advocating for female deacons and married clergy.
All of these issues, Steiner has made his own. During the October session of the Synod on Synodality he told reporters that he already practices a form of female diaconal ministry in his archdiocese. “In our reality, women exercise the deacon’s ministries,” he said.
The cardinal added how he performs a para-liturgical ceremony for women he sends to offer the sacraments within the archdiocese. “When I send someone, for example to baptize, I lay hands on them, but I don’t lay hands on someone as an ordination. I lay hands as the apostles did,” he attested, adding that it is “a sign of receiving a ministry and that this person will celebrate a sacrament.”
There has been growing concern among Catholics – publicly represented by notable prelates such as Cardinals Raymond Burke, Joseph Zen, and Gerhard Müller – that the synod would in fact lay formal openings for the female diaconate. The Catholic Church in fact infallibly teaches that it is impossible to ordain women to sacred orders, including the diaconate.
Notwithstanding such teaching, the synod’s final text – approved by a majority vote and formally approved by the Pope – states that “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open.” (Paragraph 60: 258 votes for/97 against)
It is this kind of language which critics of the synod have been so vocal against. “Are we to pray to the Holy Spirit to overturn the teachings He has passed on to us through the apostles?” Cardinal Joseph Zen questioned last month in relation to the synod.
Müller has opined that ardent promoters of the synod’s ideology are promoting a “synodal Church” rather than the true teachings of Catholicism, and thus are guilty of “sins against the Holy Spirit.”
Steiner was joined at the San Diego conference by Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville, giving an indication of the influence of the event even though the number of participants was small. Flores has similarly emerged as a rising star in recent years due to his public advocacy for the talking points of the synod, along with other issues close to Pope Francis’ heart such as immigration.
So notable has been his work for the synod that he appeared during the October session as one of the Vatican’s key allies in North America for the process, and was chosen by Francis to serve as one of the rotating presidential leads during the event.
Flores was subsequently elected as a member of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod last October, meaning that he will be among the small team responsible for implementing the Synod on Synodality and preparing for whatever the next synod will be.
Though perhaps isolated and limited in its attendance, the San Diego conference appears as a further example of the fiercely boiling civil war now erupting in the Church, as cardinals publicly debate the nature of the Church and Her doctrines, following the openness and relativistic terms of the Synod on Synodality.
