Anyone who thinks that this was a “win” for the “conservatives” is living in a dream world. Their heads are still firmly planted in the sand.
The only reason why the “liberals” are unhappy is because it wasn’t a blatant denial of Church teaching. However, they did get the opening of the door to abuse Church teaching.
We expected far worse. I don’t really think of it as a “win” so much as “not the loss that we feared.” I am battered by a world that imposes loss on me at every front. I have very little left. If I am expecting a great loss, and in its place, I see only a bit of erosion, then you will need to forgive me my brief moment of joy. I dont get many these days.
You have not read the first Douthat article that I posted. Douthat thinks that harm was done during the synod, but it was minimized. We knew months ago that the synod would be harmful and confuse people, but in most scenarios things would have been far worse.
We actually agree far more than disagree. Please do not say that I am living in a dream world or similar in the future since we actually agree on the main points.