Pope Francis to open major Vatican summit

Pope Francis will open a month-long summit of global Catholic leaders on Wednesday but it is likely to defer any decision on divisive issues such as women's ordination and blessings for same-sex couples until next year.

The gathering, which includes cardinals, bishops and lay people from more than 110 countries, will vote on a final text in late October that may suggest doctrinal changes. But most of the hottest issues have been assigned to study groups that will make final reports to Francis, who is 87, only next June.

The assembly, known as a synod, drew fierce criticism from conservative critics of Francis last year.

Ahead of that event, in an unusually strong letter from high prelates to the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, five cardinals publicly asked Francis to restate that the Church could not ordain women or bless same-sex couples.

This year, likely due to the shifting of major topics from the floor of the general assembly to the study groups, there has been little conservative criticism, even from usually vocal right-wing Catholic media outlets. But Catholics hoping for changes to the Church's teachings are expressing frustration.

A group that supports LGBTQ Catholics, DignityUSA, said the shunting of issues on to study groups "defers the possibility of substantive change".

"Any hope of timely attention to the real crises LGBTQ+ people are experiencing has been crushed," said Marianne Duddy-Burke, the group's executive director, who was part of a delegation of global LGBTQ Catholics that met Francis during the 2023 synod.