VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service
Josephine McKenna | October 15, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) After two days of fighting between happy liberals and angry conservatives, the Vatican on Wednesday (Oct. 15) dispatched a leading moderate from the U.S. church to tell both sides to temper their expectations about impending changes in church doctrine.
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, stressed that a working document on family issues released on Monday (Oct. 13) is simply that — a draft document still subject to amendment by about 200 bishops and lay delegates meeting at Vatican City.
Monday’s midpoint report from the two-week Synod on the Family raised expectations that the Catholic Church was poised to revolutionize its teaching on homosexuality, divorce and cohabitation, saying gays and lesbians have “gifts and qualities” to offer the church.
On Wednesday, Kurtz, flanked by Spanish Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach and Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, urged both sides to take a breath.
“The working document is an important moment, but it is a moment,” Kurtz told journalists. “It’s at the surface of the synod discussion. I see the synod as a process. My focus is going to be on the document that will be the fruitfulness of the whole process and that includes our amendments.”
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