The final report of the fifteenth general session of the Synod of Bishops, held on the topics of young people, faith, and vocational discernment, was released Saturday. The document says the Church must find new ways of presenting its teaching on sexuality and continue to “accompany” and “listen to” people with same-sex attraction.

The final draft of the synod report was presented to members Oct. 27 for voting, which took place in two sessions that day. The draft was passed in its entirety. During the voting process, each paragraph of the document was voted on, requiring 166 or more “yes” votes — a two-thirds majority — to pass and be included in the final report.

Each paragraph passed by a comfortable margin.

The 167-paragraph document states that the “Church struggles to convey the beauty of the Christian vision of the body and sexuality,” and therefore “a search for more adequate methods is urgently needed.”

The document contains two paragraphs specifically on the issue of human sexuality, which is it says requires focusing on “empathetic listening, accompaniment and discernment, along the line indicated by the recent Magisterium.”

There are questions concerning the body and sexuality that “need a more in-depth anthropological, theological and pastoral elaboration,” the document continues, including the aspect of difference between “male and female identity and sexual inclinations,” but the synod father affirmed that it was “reductive” to use sexual desire or orientation as a starting point for defining a person’s identity.

While condemning discrimination and violence on the basis of sex, it affirms that God loves every person and the Church loves every person, why underscoring the “determinative anthropological relevance” of the complimentary differences between men and women.

Another paragraph which drew some opposition from the synod fathers was entitled “the questions of young people.”

It begins by explaining that the Catholic Church has a rich tradition and understanding “on which to build and from which to propose its own teaching” on the subject of sexual morality. This tradition is said to include the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope St. John Paul II’s catechesis on the theology of the body, Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus caritas est, and Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia.

“But young people, even those who know and live this teaching, express the desire to receive a clear, human and empathetic word from the Church.”

The final document goes on to say that sexual morality is often a source of “misunderstanding and estrangement from the Church, as it is perceived as a space of judgment and condemnation.”

Young people value authenticity, it states, but are often disoriented by the many social changes taking place: “They express more particularly an explicit desire for discussion on issues related to the difference between male and female identity.”

Full story at Catholic News Agency.