Archbishop Charles Scicluna says the strongest message to emerge from a bruising three-week synod at the Vatican is a willingness to have an open Church.

Mgr Scicluna said the case-by-case approach towards divorced Catholics approved by the synod confirmed a practice that had been adopted by many in the Church.

“But to me the more important overall message that emerged was that we must exclude nobody and include everybody in the life of the Church,” he said, adding this applied even to those who felt they were at the margins of society.

Catholic bishops from around the world went through a marathon 90-minute voting procedure on Saturday during which they cast their vote on each of the 94 paragraphs of the final document.

The contentious clause 85, which spoke of greater openness towards divorced Catholics, only just managed to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority by a single vote.

Read more in the Times of Malta.