Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said participants had approved a "re-balanced" final report that took into account the concerns of the most conservative members.
October 20, 2014

Pope Francis made big news when a report he authorized said that the church should be open to change regarding gays and divorcees.

In a marked shift in tone likely to be discussed in parishes around the world, an assembly of Catholic bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican released a preliminary document on Monday calling for the church to welcome and accept gay people, unmarried couples and those who have divorced, as well as the children of these less traditional families.

There was a gathering of Bishops for the last two weeks and as usual Conservatives blocked everything they could to undermine the new message of change that the Pope obviously wants the Church to adopt.

Roman Catholic bishops on Saturday failed to reach a consensus on opening the Church's doors to remarried divorcees and gays after a special synod on the family, in a blow to Pope Francis.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said participants had approved a "re-balanced" final report that took into account the concerns of the most conservative members.

In a final vote after two weeks of fierce debate, three paragraphs touching on the hot-button issues of a more welcome stance towards gays, and allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion, did not get the two-thirds majority needed from the 183 bishops present.

Conservatives have dominated the Vatican for way to long and even though they refused to budge this past week, change is inevitable and look to next year's conference to really put the pressure on them to do so. Cardinal Dolan then joined ABC's This Week to discuss what happened and as usual he supported the conservative ideal of what marriage is, but he then took it much farther by calling it noble.

Dolan: Once again, you got overwhelming agreement on things, first of all, on -- on the definition of marriage given us by God and faithfully handed on by the church, one man, one woman, lifelong, life-giving, faithful, bringing about new life and children. All right, their enthusiastic response to that.

And then the other side, George, was how can we, though, embrace and never alienate those who are unable to live up to that noble ideal?

What a horrible thing to say and an equally horrendous view on morality. His words are clearly homophobic and despicable. Here's a definition of the word "noble."

  1. 1.belonging to a hereditary class with high social or political status; aristocratic."the Duchess of Kent and other noble ladies"
  2. 2.having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals."the promotion of human rights was a noble aspiration"

When two people want to get married, be faithful to one another and raise children to best of their ability, isn't that the real definition of being "noble?" Religious conservatives make sure to promote their hate at all times when it comes to social issues. Fortunately for the world, his views are on their way out: Read this very good piece in The Guardian: Pope Francis’s healing, loving revolution is unstoppable

Here's the full transcript from This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: These -- these debates are so emotional. Try to take us inside and give us a feel for what this debate is like. David pointed out in his piece that some of the language taken out of this document, one sentence was that homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community, also that same-sex couples offer each other, quote, "precious support."

Those phrases taking. Now give us a feel for what the argument against phrases like that sounds like.

DOLAN: Well, you know where the argument or the conversation would have taken place, George, would have been in what we call the Cherkoles Minores (ph). It's part of the the Latin language. This is one of the few places in the world you can still use it.

In those small groups, which is about 20, 25 people who share the same language, lay people, priests, sisters, bishops. That's where we offered some amendments.

I can only speak about my group. And there was a pretty good vivid conversation, especially with the African businesses, whom I love more than ever, who were a -- who -- who obviously come from cultures and societies that I admire that have a very strong definition of -- of marriage as -- as man and woman with children and are kind of afraid of attempts to water that down.

One of the fears that they would have would be what we would call same-sex marriage.

So they were -- they were pastorally sensitive about the document giving any indication that the church might be open to any change at all in the definition of marriage.

So there was a good debate. Twice as good conversation that went on.

Once again, you got overwhelming agreement on things, first of all, on -- on the definition of marriage given us by God and faithfully handed on by the church, one man, one woman, lifelong, life-giving, faithful, bringing about new life and children. All right, their enthusiastic response to that.

And then the other side, George, was how can we, though, embrace and never alienate those who are unable to live up to that noble ideal?

And as usual, Pope Francis was saying we've got to keep both those values in mind.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So where does this end up? What is the bottom line message to gay and lesbian Catholics, to divorced Catholics?

DOLAN: I'm glad you asked that question, George, because that brings me to a point. This synod, this was what I've been calling an antipasto synod. This synod was not to make any decisions. We weren't even supposed to give any proposition.

This was to set the table for a year from now, when an even larger synod is going to come together to -- to -- to continue the conversation.

We just wanted to kind of set the tone and the agenda. And I think that was done very well, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and -- and Pope Francis.

The other thing we've got to remember is this, George, in Catholic polity, in Catholic -- the Catholic approach to things, synods don't change doctrine. Nobody changes doctrine. We believe -- we believe that we're given doctrine by -- by God and our job is to faithfully and effectively pass it on.

Synods are more of a pastoral conversation of a family coming together to kind of give ourselves a report card on how we're doing that and if we can do it better.

And so I think that conversation, especially on some of the -- on some of the more delicate issues to which you referred, it's probably going to continue next year.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And when we look back after the final deliberations, do you think that all of your efforts will be seen as this generation's Vatican Two, a real monumental change in the church?

DOLAN: No, I don't think so. I don't think so. Keep in -- and this is tough to say, George, but keep in mind that the church's major goal is not to change teaching, not to change what God has revealed, but for us to change to conform ourselves to what God has told us about life, about meaning, about purpose, about eternity, about values, that's the ch -- that's the church's job, not to change what he's told us, but to change how we are disobeying it, are not -- not using his teaching to form our lives.

That's a life-long challenge, but that's the noble vocation of the church.

Can you help us out?

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