Catholic bishops were on Saturday 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 on Saturday, 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 on Saturday 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.
- A strategist pope -
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.

Francis acknowledged the depth of division last week when he said that the desired convergence of views was "easier said than done".
But he has shown no sign of easing up on his push for a new approach, repeatedly stressing that change is inevitable and intervening strategically and energetically in the synod's deliberations.

At its opening, he reminded participants that the Church was "not a museum to keep or preserve. It's a place where the holy people of God move forward."

The Church, he said, must have "its doors open to welcome all those who knock", and not "point the finger in judgement" of others.

That was followed up by a thinly veiled blast against the ultra-conservative faction in which Francis warned participants in the debate not to be taken in by "spiritually unhelpful" conspiracy theories.
That, it later emerged, had been triggered by a group of cardinals writing to him to complain that the procedures of the synod had been structured in a manner "designed to facilitate predetermined results on important disputed questions".

The procedures, he reminded the rebels, had been approved by him -- a pointed observation many saw as a tacit reminder that he is also the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to policy.

Once the bishops have all gone home, Francis is expected to take some time before deciding what, if any, changes he wants to see in the form of a letter to Catholic dioceses across the world.

Mark Coleridge, the archbishop of Brisbane, suggested the pope has given little indication of his intentions.

Anticipating Saturday's final vote, he wrote: "Pope Francis will be sitting poker-faced up the front, taking it all in and wondering what to do with all this.

"I don’t doubt for a moment that he already has some thoughts. He’s nothing if not a strategist," he wrote in his online synod diary.

Source: AFP