Bishops Scrap Welcome to Gays

On Saturday, Catholic bishops scrapped a landmark welcome to gays in a draft document that was supposed to show a more tolerant approach. A section of the text had already been watered down to remove the accepting tone that considered gays as individuals who had gifts to offer the church, but even that failed to win the two-thirds of votes needed to pass. The paragraph had gone back to referring to homosexuality as a problem faced by Catholic families, saying that “people with homosexual tendencies must be welcomed with respect and delicacy” but marriage, according to church teachings, is only between a man and a woman. Another section dealing with whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion also failed to pass.