Interesting. I thought the pope was a dictator, I didn't know he could be overruled on matters of policy.
And of course the old men who run the Synod are evil.
My opinion of the new pop improved slightly. My opinion of the church itself remains the same as a result of reading this article.
The Pope can be a dictator, but he has to state he wants to be one. (i.e. invoke his infaillibility by declaring something ex-cathedra on a matter of doctrine)
And then weather the kickback from the "wronged" party and the schism risk.
Still reading catholic-aligned news at the time, I remember the embarassment and the many tries to dance around the issue when JP2 tried to do it about contraception. (and I suspect the door is still slightly open for a future Pope to reverse the ban on rubbers by declaring it was not really a doctrinal matter, although I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime)
Francis, as a good Jesuit, is too politically astute to risk that, he prefers to air "opinions", "reflections" and "drafts", and "welcome discussions", like politicians use "blunders" to test the backlash on some subjects.
Despite this synod's failure to achieve progressive results, the good news is that a majority of the attending bishops actually aligned with the Pope - the synod is a conservative organisation by design, needing a 2/3rd majority to vote on a change.
(the bad news is that I suspect western countries bishops were over-represented, while the most catholic countries are drifting southwards, so future synod might not be more progressives, even as old western conservatives retire)