Pro - gay groups slam Vatican for backtracking over gays and
divorcees , despite Pope urging the Church to accept
"change " .
Activists and human rights groups have lashed out at the
Catholic Church ' s failure to open its doors to gay people , but
praised Pope Francis for getting bishops to confront " taboos . "
The spiritual leader of the world ' s 1 . 2 billion Catholics had
called for the Church to take a more merciful approach to
gays , unmarried mothers and remarried divorcees , but on
Saturday , bishops failed to approve the section on ministering
to gay people , originally titled " welcoming homosexuals ".
Gay activists were disappointed after hopes the Pontiff would
bring groundbreaking change at a conference of bishops.
The bishops failed to approve even a watered- down section
on ministering to homosexuals that stripped away the
welcoming tone of acceptance contained in the draft
document .
The revised paragraph referred to homosexuality as one of
the problems Catholic families have to confront .
"Once more, members of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic
Church have erred on the side of hypocrisy and fear , " Lisbeth
Melendez Rivera, from the prominent US gay group Human
Rights Campaign , told the AFP news agency .
But others saw pluses at the two - week assembly , known as a
synod .
"Even if the text wasn ' t approved, and that is a shame , it will
have effects . The debate will continue, " Elisabeth Saint - Guily ,
the co- president of a Christian gay group in France said .
New challenges
Speaking at the ceremonial closing of the synod on Sunday,
Pope Francis said the Church should not be afraid of change
and new challenges .
"God is not afraid of new things. That is why he is
continuously surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us
in unexpected ways , " the pope said .
After an initial draft of the synod ' s final document
was released on Monday , conservative bishops had vowed to
row back on the upbeat tone , saying it would create confusion
among the faithful and threatened to undermine the
traditional family .
The fallout showed a deeply divided Church on some of the
most pressing issues facing Catholic families , and caused at
least one head to roll.
Outspoken conservative US cardinal Raymond Leo Burke,
currently head of the Vatican ' s top canon law court , told
Buzzfeed that he was being removed from his job to be made
patron to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , an honorary
post .

m.aljazeera.com/story/2014101914230243870

na una headach be dat oooo
papal move on

Ok