Joy of Love - far enough? too far?

"Pope Francis said Friday that Catholics should look to their own consciences more than Vatican rules to negotiate the complexities of sex, marriage and family life, demanding the church shift its emphasis from doctrine to mercy in confronting some of the thorniest issues facing the faithful."

http://www.newsday.com/news/world/pope-francis-the-joy-of-love-says-individual-c...

"Pope Francis has rejected liberal calls to accept gay unions in a new set of guidelines on love, marriage and the family which are expected to become one of the defining moments of his tenure.

Although he called for greater tolerance and the removal of any sort of 'discrimination' towards the homosexual community, his 260-page text titled 'The Joy of Love' denied hopes for the Church's blessing of gay marriage or civil unions.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3529686/Pope-Francis-set-release-Catholi...

The headlines spin this Apostolic Exhortation in varied directions. What are your thoughts?

Mine are that churches strive too much to hold onto doctrine. Perhaps the Pope went as far as possible away from doctrinal purity?

There's also a thread on this on the Catholic Tradition group, Amoris Laetitia, which might be worth glancng at from time to time, although I acknowledge that the conversations on the two different groups are likely to be different.

JTF,
That thread is well developed already, and looks to be the better discussion.

Thanks.