I. Did the Vatican lie in excluding Cardinal Tong Hon?
The final list of the members of the 2015 Synod of Bishops includes a good number of prelates past the "retirement age" of 75, including a handful of octogenarian Cardinals: Tettamanzi (81), Kasper (82), Danneels (82), Sgreccia (87), and Sodano (88 in November of this year). Many others are between the ages of 75 and 80, such as Cardinal Damasceno Assis (one of the four President-Delegates of the Synod, who is 77), the Curial dicastery heads Cardinals Coccopalmerio (77), Amato (77), Veglio (77), and many others. Without falling into blind faith in the "biological solution" against liberalism -- there are, after all, a good number of liberal theologians and prelates in their 40's, 50's and early 60's -- it should be noted that the "Kasperite camp" has as its most prominent leaders and promoters, Cardinals in their late 70's and 80's, including a majority of the prelates mentioned above. (Sgreccia and Amato are staunch conservatives on moral issues, though, as is the 77-year-old Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna.)
The vatican can accept and promote the "heretical German hierarchy", but they are frightened of the possibility of someone who is a TRUE Catholic to have any influence on the new church innovations. What happened to: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it! ! ! ! !
