Pope wants Church to be 'surprised by God', urges acceptance of gays

After the proposal for wider acceptance of homosexuals was met with a fierce backlash amid conservatives, Pope Francis urged the Catholic Church to not be afraid of change.

While saying that God is not afraid of new things and that is why he is surprising, guiding us and opening our hearts in various ways, the Pope appealed to the conservatives to not lock themselves within the written word and to allow oneself to be "surprised by God," reported The Independent.

The proposal for wider acceptance of homosexuals failed to win a two-thirds majority at the Vatican synod.

A draft report that was issued midway through the meeting had urged the Church to soften its stance towards homosexuals and divorced Catholics who have remarried. However, the text was watered down in the final report approved by the council. The revised document only said that discrimination against gay people "is to be avoided.