On the one hand, we get repeated reports in the international media of conflicts between progressives and conservatives, with the latter acting as a brake on the Pope.

On the other hand, the information relayed to Maltese Catholics and the church media, or similar, has been saccharine, almost devotional, and not objectively informative at all.

Even a reputable Catholic paper like The Tablet could come up with a title like the following: Synod ends with no consensus on communion or homosexuality.

The issues of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, and the Church's response to same-sex unions, have been the most fiercely contested issues in the synod which has seen open disagreement among progressive and conservative synod Fathers.

The gathering was the second half of a process that began last year with a worldwide consultation of the laity, followed by an extraordinary synod in Rome.

The international media portrayed the synod as a battleground between progressives, led by the Pope, and conservatives who thwarted him at every turn. In the end, or so was the general impression one got, confusion reigned supreme and the end result was a church unsure of where it's going.

But there can be a different explanation of the outcome. The Vatican - finally - has come full circle.

The 1968 Humanae Vitae document on birth control heightened awareness of both the clergy and the laity that canon law made provisions for situations where church law and practical life "didn't quite fit together".

By the time Pope Paul VI had, finally, produced his encyclical on birth control, declaring that only "natural means" (ie abstinence or the rhythm method) were acceptable ways for Catholic couples to limit the number of their children, many Catholic women of child-bearing age had already decided for themselves that the birth control pill was also acceptable for them to use. By the early 1970s, the number of women who thought this grew to 95 per cent, where it remains today.

Their choice was, surprisingly, endorsed by most of the national groups of bishops (including those in the US) who made written comments about Humanae Vitae after it was published. And they did so in the context of the internal forum, a longcherished process in the church that states that if there is a conflict between a law of the church and a Catholic's individual, informed conscience, a person is allowed to assert the primacy of conscience in decisions he or she makes. The synod's document makes no direct mention of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, but there is reference to a "path of discernment" and the "internal forum" which some priests and bishops already use to determine whether a person can be readmitted to the sacraments.

As such, it leaves the door open - offering the possibility of the further development of church teaching on the subject.

"The key word is 'discernment'. Everyone is invited to think there is no black or white, or yes or no. The task is to discern," said Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna.

The final document states that cohabiting couples and those who have married in civil ceremonies have positive elements and are stable. Both are said to have the potential to progress to sacramental marriage. It points out that couples often live together because they are waiting for financial security in difficult economic times.

"In other countries, even, the number of couples cohabiting continues to grow, not only because of the rejection of values of the family and of marriage, but also because of the fact that to marry is perceived as a luxury, because of social conditions, so that material poverty pushes people to cohabit," says the document.

There has been a widespread lack of proper information, not just among Maltese Catholics but in Malta in general, regarding the results of the recent synod of bishops of the Catholic Church.

The document recommends that a ministry dedicated to those whose marriage has broken down is particularly urgent. It singles out the need to support and seek justice for victims of domestic violence and to protect minors from sexual abuse. Specialised centres of listening and mediation should be set up in the dioceses to support those involved in marital break-up.

Although St John Paul II ruled out Communion for remarried divorcees in his 1981 apostolic exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, the document identifies a part where Pope John Paul refers to the very different situations leading to marital break-up. These include those who have been abandoned by their partners and those responsible for ending the marriage. The document says that interested individuals should embark on a "path of discernment" with a priest under the guidance of the bishop.

"Those who are divorced and remarried must ask themselves how they behaved towards their children when their marriage entered into crisis; whether there have been attempts at reconciliation, what is the situation of the abandoned partner; what have been the consequences of the new relationship on the rest of the family and the community of the faithful; what example does it offer to young people who have to prepare themselves for matrimony," says the document.

Discussions held with a priest in the "internal forum" in which a person is helped to examine his or her conscience is also mentioned in the document. It states: "The conversation with the priest in the internal forum contributes to the formation of a correct judgement upon which obstacles rest the possibility of a fuller participation in the life of the Church and upon the steps which can favour this and make it grow."

In many dioceses around the world, bishops encourage their priests to have such discussions which can ultimately lead to a person's readmission to the Sacraments.

On the subject of homosexuality, the document reiterates traditional teaching and unequivocally rejects same-sex marriage. It is strong in its condemnation of those institutions that seek to make overseas aid to poor countries conditional on those countries legalising gay marriage.

The document repeats the teaching of the church that individuals must be respected and welcomed, regardless of their sexual orientation, and emphasises the Church's support for families with a gay member.

The three votes taken by the bishops at the synod reaffirmed the right for Catholics who are in a second marriage and chose not to apply for an annulment after the first one was ended. Of course, many of these Catholics had already followed their consciences and continued to receive Communion after their re-marriage. And many pastors in parishes across the globe had, knowingly, allowed them to do so.

However, countless millions of others involved in second marriages, believing they were "excommunicated", felt they were barred from receiving Communion because they never obtained an annulment.

The synod's vote overturns that widely believed - but terribly unjust - ruling for the universal church. And by emphasising the validity of the "internal forum", where the role of the individual conscience is primary, it provides a mechanism for the church, and its pastors, to de-escalate the strident tone it frequently assumes when discussing other controversial issues such as stem-cell research, same-sex marriage, married and female clergy and voting for politicians who approve of abortion rights.

Individual conscience trumps ecclesiastical edict. The bishops assembled in Rome said so - by a two-thirds majority vote.

The votes of the Synod of Bishops are, perhaps, only the tip of the iceberg for the gradual transformation of church rules, structures and practices that Pope Francis has prophetically initiated in his grand reformation. Let your conscience, carefully formed in the context of tradition, morality and experience, be your guide - along with a generous dollop of epikeia to ensure that justice is, indeed, sweetened by mercy.