Over to you, Pope Francis, as bishops wrap up stormy synod

Catholic bishops were today wrapping up an often stormy synod on the family: now it is over to Pope Francis to decide what may change in the Church's approach to sex, love and marriage.
The Argentinian pontiff has made it clear he wants the Church to become more compassionate and welcoming towards believers who find themselves in breach of its rules, most notably homosexuals and remarried divorcees.
But the last three weeks of discussions at the Vatican have vividly illustrated the depth of resistance within sections of the Church to Francis's reform agenda on what he likes to call "below the belt" issues.

With conservative clerics talking of "Beasts of the Apocalypse" and the "whiff of Satan" stalking the synod, the gathering of senior clerics has been played out against a backdrop of frenzied claim and counter-claim with accusations of plotting and skullduggery flying in all directions.
It has made for riveting drama and lively headlines.
But no one expects the synod to sanction any great leap forward in terms of what the Church says on questions such as whether divorced Catholics who have remarried civilly should be able to take communion.

Divisive and inconclusive has been many Vatican watchers' early verdict on the second and final round of a review that initially appeared to herald much more radical change in line with Francis's own thinking.

"Some people will be disappointed," Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, acknowledged today, just before the 270 synod "fathers" were due to start voting on a final text, article by article, with each one requiring two-thirds support to be approved.
Schoenborn said a consensus text presented to the bishops today morning addressed the remarried divorcees issue indirectly by establishing a set of criteria for the assessment of individual cases.
"There cannot be a simple yes or no, each situation is so different," he told a press briefing.
This formula would fit in with the "case-by-case" approach Francis outlined last week when he said each bishop should be able to make decisions on the issue at their own discretion.

The archbishop also said "you won't find much" about homosexuality in the final text, explaining that the issue had been "too delicate" to be addressed in any depth following an almighty row last year over an early draft that described loving gay relationships as having some important positive values.
That was quickly excised from the working document that formed the basis for the second round of discussions.