> “I think this is a complete misunderstanding of what he has said on these topics.”
I think you have hit on the Pope’s weakness; being able to articulate what it is he is trying to do.
This Pope or any Pope has no excuse in making their words and views known. They are not blocked or diverted by the press and they are not impeded by language.
Yet so many news reports from Catholic clergy from all over the world have reported angst in understanding what this Pope is trying to say or do.
But your first sentence illuminates the entire dilemma:
“The headline is implying that Pope Francis wants the Synod to say that adultery and sodomy are not sins.”
So much of the press is homosexual or conditioned to normalize homosexuality. They are pushing and pushing relentlessly to have the headlines read just as you state above. Why then is Pope Francis not responding and providing clarity on what he is intending or saying?
For homosexuals to be accepted by the Church and to receive communion, they must give up their homosexuality and repent of it and all other sins. But they will not agree to this. They want the Church to recognize their sexual perversity as normal. Why then would the Pope plant seeds of thought or at least fail to arrest such thoughts that homosexuals in civil unions have something good to contribute to the Church?
And why is the Pope or is the Pope using the word ‘gay’ rather than the correct term ‘homosexual’? Homosexuals push and claim the word ‘gay’ to camouflage the true nature of their perversity.
I understand what you’re saying. I’m a faithful Catholic reader assuming that the Pope is a faithful Catholic speaker/writer. I do not find what he says to be anything but the Catholic Faith, of which I am a student as well as a believer.
However, I am not the only type of reader. There are those of ill will. There are people whose ideology I can’t clearly state. There are those who are ignorant of both Christianity in general and Catholicism in specific.
Whether it would be more productive in terms of the salvation of souls (the only Christian criterion) for the Pope to let his communication be controlled by the ill-willed and/or ignorant audience is not my judgment call to make. It is his. Perhaps his judgment is in error. None of us will know this side of Heaven (or Purgatory, perhaps).