ROME – Yesterday’s big news out of the Synod of Bishops really did come from outside, i.e., it didn’t emanate from within the Paul VI Audience Hall where the event is taking place, but rather from someone who isn’t even there: 91-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, the retired Bishop of Hong Kong, whose September 21 critical letter made the rounds of various Catholic news outlets.
Officially speaking, the only news from inside the synod yesterday came from Italian layman Paolo Ruffini, head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, who delivered the first of his regular briefings, and found himself in the unenviable position not of telling reporters what happened, but rather trying to defend why he can’t.
