Catholic gay rights groups say they
are disappointed after bishops rejected proposals for wider acceptance of gay
people, which had the Pope's backing.
The call to "accept and value" homosexuals was in a draft report, but failed to win the backing of two-thirds of the bishops at a synod in Rome.
The final report says only that anti-gay discrimination is "to be avoided".
Two other paragraphs suggesting divorced and remarried Catholics could receive communion also failed to pass.
The synod will meet again in a year's time for further discussion.
More than 200 bishops from around the world had spent two weeks at the Vatican discussing some of the most controversial issues around family life.
The gathering has revealed a fracture line in Church opinion over how to adapt traditional teaching on human sexuality to 21st Century attitudes, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.
Pope Francis had made a powerful appeal to traditionalists not to lock themselves within the letter of the law, but conservative cardinals and bishops carried the day at the end of the synod, our correspondent adds.
'Very disappointing'
The New Ways Ministry, a US Catholic gay rights group, said it was "very disappointing" that the synod's final report had not retained "the gracious welcome to lesbian and gay people that the draft of the report included".
But it added that the synod's "openness to discussion" provided "hope for further development down the road".
Another group, DignityUSA, said in a statement: "Unfortunately, today, doctrine won out over pastoral need.
"It is disappointing that those who recognised the need for a more inclusive Church were defeated."
Pope Francis' proposals were rebuffed, but still
gained more than 50% of the votes However, Christopher Lamb, from British Catholic journal The Tablet, told the BBC the discussion at the synod had been a "huge achievement in itself".
It was important, he said, to remember that many of the bishops at the synod were from countries where homosexuality was illegal.
"We have now got an acceptance that we need a new language in the Church when talking about gay couples and homosexuality in general," he added. BBC
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