The main author of a contentious Vatican draft report on welcoming gays and divorced people into the church defended it yesterday but acknowledged problems and said there was room for improvement.
On Monday, Cardinal Peter Erdo, the "relator" of the Vatican meeting on family life, officially presented the working paper that was supposed to have summarised bishops' closed-door debate about marriage, divorce, gays and contraception over the previous week.
Many bishops praised the document as having captured the spirit of their discussions, but conservatives blasted it as unacceptable, saying it didn't reflect their views and was in sore need of an overhaul.
Erdo told Vatican Radio that the 16 officials who drafted it struggled to summarise the positions of 30 to 40 bishops and were rushed to finish it on time.
But he said the document at least covered the general themes to be discussed in working groups that are proposing amendments for the final report due at the weekend.
