I agree with you on this. I noticed how he allowed all the left-leaning clergy to openly show what they wanted and then, at the end of that first Synod meeting, he soundly proclaimed Church Magisterial Teaching...and received a standing ovation from everyone present. (Of course, the press didn’t have too much to say about THAT. The press is pretty much useless these days and those who want to know the full truth have to do some digging to get it.)
;-)
Then at the last minute of the Synod on the orders of Francis all the confusing and heretical statements about homosexuals and divorced where left in the official report, when they didn’t get enough votes to even be part of the final report. Francis could have cared less if they got the required number of votes or not he is bound and determined to let divorced and remarried without an annulment receive communion and bound and determined to make homosexuals happy by telling them their perverted immoral lifestyle is fine with him, inspite of what the gospel says and Catholic teachings for the last 2,000 years.
I wouldn’t exactly put it the way you did. He left highly controversial and flatly rejected passages in the final report. They were noted as rejected, so it’s not like he defied the synod, but it did leave the impression that he had hoped the synod might move in another direction. The other thing that so nails shut the notion of liberals wanting a Vatican III is that the synod exposed all of their tactics, and the fact that the clear majority of bishops present were outraged by them.
I’m afraid Pope Francis is a helpless liberal. The strength of the Catholic church is that it doesn’t much matter to the eternal repository of the faith.