Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Catholic bishops have scrapped their landmark welcome to gays, showing deep divisions at the end of a two-week meeting sought by Pope Francis to chart a more merciful approach to ministering to Catholic families.

The bishops failed on Saturday to approve even a section on ministering to gays, originally titiled "welcoming homosexuals", the content of which had already been watered down to accommodate objections.

Two other paragraphs concerning the other issue at the synod - whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive comm- also failed to pass.

The Vatican earlier this week released a new translation of the document which significantly watered-down the tone and language of the section on ministering to homosexuals.

Francis insisted in the name of transparency that the full document be published with the voting tally.

The document is to serve as the basis for future debate leading up to another meeting of bishops next October.

*Reuters