That's one low bar and one tiny baby step

I've got to say, I'm blown away by all the news reports saying the Vatican "urges respect for gay couples". Sure, they've finally admitted that "there are cases" - some cases - "in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners". And I'm not denying that's a step forward.

But.

But that same sentence started like this: "Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions".

And let's not forget that at that very same synod, a cardinal - and not just any cardinal, but Raymond Burke, the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, second only to the pope himself as judicial authority - told parents not to invite their gay children and spouses/partners to Christmas if grandchildren were present:

"If homosexual relations are intrinsically disordered, which indeed they are — reason teaches us that and also our faith — then, what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living in a disordered relationship with another person? We wouldn’t, if it were another kind of relationship — something that was profoundly disordered and harmful — we wouldn't expose our children to that relationship, to the direct experience of it. And neither should we do it in the context of a family member who not only suffers from same-sex attraction, but who has chosen to live out that attraction, to act upon it, committing acts which are always and everywhere wrong, evil."

He said these things, and was not rebuked.

"Profoundly disordered and harmful." "Intrinsically disordered ... indeed." "Expose our children." "Acts which are always and everywhere wrong, evil." Evil.

Yeah. I'm not sensing the "respect" here.