Consecrated without the permission of the pope, Steenoven was at the center of the 18th-century controversy between national churches and what many considered to be the overreaching powers of the papacy.

After the Mass of the Holy Ghost, the canons prepared to advance the rights of the Catholic episcopate over the papacy by electing their own archbishop.

The Chapter of Utrecht and the archbishop-elect asked Pope Innocent XIII to permit the consecration of Steenoven, but they received no response.

French Bishop and Jansenist theologian Pierre de Langle (of the Diocese of Boulogne in Northern France), wrote: "I can think of nothing except the present state of the glorious church of Utrecht.”[7] On August 4, 1723, the Chapter of Utrecht sent a second letter to the pope.

Ultramontane voices favoring the power of the papacy penned responses, including a dialogue between Warmond and Regthart, and a letter from a doctor in Louvain to a friend in Holland on the supposed rights of "the so-called Chapter of Utrecht.

[11] Pope Innocent XIII did not confirm Steenoven's election, but neither did he condemn it; the hope was had that his successor might more kindly look upon the plight of the Church of Utrecht.

[12] Steenoven and van Dyck, in their capacity as vicars general of the Chapter, published a pastoral letter asking for the prayers of the faithful for the deceased pope.

[13] The next day, on April 8, 1724, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church met in conclave and issued a letter in which they reproached the Chapter of Utrecht.

[14] The Internuncio also denounced the work of the Chapter of Utrecht in a widely-disbursed pamphlet addressed to all Roman Catholics in Holland.

The well-known French bishop and Jansenist Charles de Caylus is said to have replied: "If I were in the country, I wouldn't have the slightest difficulty in imposing my hands [on the archbishop-elect].

Eighteen months after the election of the archbishop-elect, on October 13, 1724, the Chapter of Utrecht wrote to Dominique Marie Varlet, former Bishop of Babylon, who now resided in Amsterdam.

Two days later, on Sunday, October 15, 1724, in the presence of the Chapter of Utrecht, Steenoven was consecrated by Varlet in the bishop's private chapel in Amsterdam.

On February 21, 1725, Pope Benedict XIII issued a brief declaring the election of Steenoven null and void, calling his consecration "illicit and execrable," and censuring Bishop Varlet.