How Terribly Disappointing...the Catholic Synod

[Rareboy]

What a disappointment.

In what must be a crushing blow to the progressive efforts of Francis and a number of other Bishops....the conservatives won out in the end.

The only hope that I take from this is that at least it has raised the issues and may now force the fence-sitters who see the death of the Church before them to push back harder before next year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/18...08300.html

[deepu69]

The division among them on the issue is in itself a progressive trend. Hopefully, saner section who are less homophobic will prevail in years to come..

[Lexington]

Once they did their "whoops - wait - that was a rough draft" announcement, I had a feeling this was in the cards. In fact, one is tempted to assume that, when the more liberal-minded ones ran into resistance, they "leaked" the document. I'm not sure if they were hoping that public opinion would sway the conservative side, or just make it known that there WAS a liberal side. (I don't recall there being a "minority opinion" when it comes to Catholic synods...)

Lex

[East]

I get the feeling that the biggest opposition comes from very closeted self hating gays within their ranks...and there are a lot of them...

[CuriousPhoenix]

What do did you expect? There are probably more ultra conservatives and conservative leaning bishops than progressives ones. The church had been around for 1500+ years. It changes very slowly. Francis can't push any harder than he is because many would leave the church or split off if he did push all his liberal reforms on the church. The funny thing is that the Pope is infallible when it comes to dogma but with societal issues he's just like any other politician with his base.

[Borg69]

How much of this is their fear that the less breeding going on, the less $$$ in their collection plates??

[ShiftyNJ]

How much of this is their fear that the less breeding going on, the less $$$ in their collection plates??

Amusingly most of the Levite "purity laws" that still get thrown about had very practical roots aimed at the propagation of the species. Every sperm is sacred!

[MisterLove]

In what must be a crushing blow to the progressive efforts of Francis and a number of other Bishops....the conservatives won out in the end.

]

A tremendous defeat for Pope Francis, that's for sure.

[Camfer]

It sounds like he is trying to build consensus and got nowhere. He certainly has the option to invoke his papal infallibility and issue an ex cathedra teaching. Doubt that he would.

[ShiftyNJ]

I feel like the church trying to change now is trying to placate the sheep after someone left the gate open. In places like northern Europe that have evolved on sexuality, the church has lost most of its influence; fewer than 20% attend with any regularity. In places where they are still powerful (Africa, South America) the social position is still very conservative, so he doesn't have the votes.