Six months into his papacy, Francis called this assembly of bishops to reconsider the church’s approach to marriage and family at a time when the definition of family is changing rapidly. It was a sign of recognition that the church was losing traction, and members, by failing to connect with people who are divorced, separated, single, gay or transgender, or whose lives in other ways do not fit the Catholic ideal of the nuclear family.

But the bellwether issue for the synod was what to do about divorced and remarried Catholics, who cannot receive communion or participate fully in church life if they had not had their previous marriages annulled. The church teaches that the sacrament of marriage is “indissoluble,” and that remarried Catholics who have not received annulments are committing adultery and living in sin. They may receive communion if they abstain from sex.

Francis early in his papacy signaled his direction by championing the work of a German cardinal and theologian, Walter Kasper, who proposed that the church create a “penitential path” to bring divorced Catholics back into full communion with the church. But this idea quickly hit roadblocks, and the German-speaking cardinals at the synod proposed another route that was partially adopted by the bishops in their final document.

It offers divorced and remarried Catholics the possibility of returning to fuller participation in the church, on a case-by-case basis, after receiving spiritual counseling from priests in what is called the “internal forum.” It says divorced and civilly remarried Catholics “must not feel excommunicated,” and their children also must be integrated into the church.

The document said that opening to Catholics in less-than-perfect situations was not a “weakening of the faith,” or of the “testimony on the indissolubility of marriage”; instead, it was a sign of the church’s charity.

It says nothing about whether divorced and remarried Catholics may or may not receive communion — another reason that both liberals and conservatives were able to claim success at the synod.

Many divorced Catholics already take communion, but those seeking change were hoping the synod would bless the practice. Reporters seeking to clarify the document’s meaning swarmed the Vatican’s spokesmen after a news conference Saturday night.