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As we reported earlier, a synod of Catholic bishops meeting at the Vatican has released an interim document that signals the likelihood of a dramatic overhaul in the church's stance on gays and lesbians, as well as its view on divorced members.

The Associated Press writes: "Tuesday's official summary of the closed-door discussions that followed the document's release said that while the report was 'appreciated,' some bishops offered additional reflections 'to bring together various points of view' that should be reflected in a final version being released Saturday."

The National Catholic Reporter's Vatican correspondent Joshua McElwee tells NPR's Morning Edition that the preliminary report is "certainly a dramatic and decided shift in tone for the Church.

"The bishops said they want to reach out to modern society and the church at large to walk with people in different situations, to accompany them and to apply church doctrine alongside mercy," McElwee says.

That shift has elicited much excitement and some consternation. Here's a sampling of opinion from the Catholic and secular media:

Catholic News Service:

"The statement represents a marked shift in tone on the subject for an official Vatican document. While the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls for 'respect, compassion and sensitivity' toward homosexuals, it calls their inclination "objectively disordered." A 1986 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called homosexuality a 'more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil.' In 2003, the doctrinal congregation stated that permitting adoption by same-sex couples is 'gravely immoral' and 'would actually mean doing violence to these children.' "

CNS further notes: "The synod is not supposed to reach any definitive conclusions, but set the agenda for a larger world synod to be held Oct. 4-25, 2015, which will make recommendations to the pope. Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the synod, announced Oct. 13 that the theme of [next year's] assembly will be: 'The vocation and mission of the family in the church and in the modern world.' "

National Catholic Reporter Online: "Monday's document ... appears to reflect a move among the prelates from legal exactness in adherence to church teaching to graduality, a theological notion that people can grow in their holiness or in their adherence to church teaching over time."

America Magazine:

"A new wind is blowing at the extraordinary synod of bishops on the family. A wind that is bringing back 'the spirit' and even 'the letter' of the Second Vatican Council, several synod fathers said. It's a wind that reveals a clear desire for the Church to dialogue in a fresh, positive and hopeful way with the family as it is in today's world with its variations and problems and, in this context, with the issue of homosexuality. ...

"It is indeed highly significant that this provisional text looks for the positive elements in the various and diversified situations in which couples live: from cohabitation, to marriage and irregular unions, to homosexual unions (which it states clearly are not to be equated with matrimony). Rather than engaging in finger wagging or pointing to the limitations, failures or defects (from the Church's point of view) in these situations, it looks at them with tenderness and mercy while maintaining the clarity of a teacher, and insists on the importance of accompanying them in their different and often complex situations."

USA Today:

"Maria Madise, coordinator of Voice of the Family, another conservative group, asked: 'Will parents now have to tell their children that the Vatican teaches that there are positive and constructive aspects to these mortal sins' of contraception, cohabitation and homosexuality?

" 'It's an astonishing document for several reasons,' said Charles Reid, a canon law expert at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis and a frequent commentator on church-related issues. 'The biggest is that it abandons the abstract rule-making of the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and it looks at the individual person, the way Jesus looked at individual people.'

"The Vatican and experts stressed that the document itself is not a change in church doctrine, but rather is what Reid called 'a starting point for discussion.' "

The New York Times:

"Some conservative bishops who oppose any change have been outspoken. Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, an American now serving in the Vatican, said in an interview that will be published Tuesday in the Italian daily newspaper Il Foglio that 'worrying tendencies' were emerging from the synod because they 'are supporting the possibility of adopting a practice that deviates from the truth of the faith.'

"Many conservatives have complained that because the media has been excluded from the synod sessions, the synod discussions are being spun by the Vatican spokesmen charged with summarizing the proceedings in daily news conferences.

" 'A large number of bishops do not accept the ideas of openness, but few know that,' Cardinal Burke told Il Foglio."

The AP: "Conservative Catholic bishops concerned about an unprecedented opening to gays and divorced people are seeking to make their voices heard at a Vatican meeting on family life, emphasizing the benefits of faithful Catholics, the fundamentals of church doctrine and the dangers of sin."

Pope Francis

Roman Catholic Church

Divorce

gay marriage

John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital is the largest public hospital in Liberia. It has a trauma unit, a maternity ward and an outpatient clinic that serves hundreds a day.

But there's one illness that the facility won't treat: Ebola. JFK is not equipped to treat or contain it if it gets inside their wards. A new triage unit in the driveway detects patients with the virus and sends them to a dedicated Ebola center.

Like most hospitals in the capital Monrovia, the government-run JFK shut down in July after several of its prominent doctors died of Ebola. The hospital reopened in August — with major changes to keep the virus out.

"If we miss and a patient get up here and it's real Ebola, it's helter-skelter," says Dr. Wvennie MacDonald, the general administrator. "The staff panic, they run, we got close down. We got to spray. It's an economic cost. You got to rebuild morale."

Dr. Wvennie MacDonald, the administrator of the JFK Memorial Hospital, has helped put new procedures in place to keep Ebola out, including a triage station to identify possible Ebola patients at the front gate. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John W. Poole/NPR

All patients now come through one gate, says MacDonald.

Those who arrive on foot or motorcycle are sent to a triage station under an awning to the left of the driveway. Anyone in a car or ambulance is screened by a nurse at the vehicle. If there's any suspicion that someone is sick with Ebola, a doctor is called immediately.

Even when patients make it past the initial triage, they're still treated as possible carriers of Ebola. The cleaning staff wears impermeable raincoats, face masks, hoods and thick rubber gloves even in the tropical heat.

The midwives don full protective gowns — some even wear goggles — just to take vital signs during routine checkups.

The neonatal ward has been split, with babies from women who are known to the hospital staff in one area and those who are unknown, and thus suspect, in another. MacDonald says in this time of Ebola the staff have to be incredibly careful — all the time.

Keeping staff vigilant is one of the challenges as this epidemic drags on.

"It's very tough because you forget," says Helena Gbalzeh-Suah, a nurse at the hospital. "You easily forget."

Goats and Soda

A Liberian Doctor Comes Up With His Own Ebola Regimen

Goats and Soda

On Front Lines Against Ebola, Training A Matter Of Life Or Death

Health care workers need to constantly check their protective gear and make sure they don't come in contact with the bodily fluids of anyone. "It's not something you say, 'OK, I got to go back and correct it,'" Gbalzeh-Suah says. "You're dead. That's what we are dealing with."

This hospital knows this all too well. Last week the head of the obstetrics and gynecology department died of Ebola. Earlier JFK also lost three others to the disease, including the hospital's top HIV physician, the director of the emergency unit and a physician's assistant.

Everyone who works at the facility is terrified of Ebola, says Gbalazeh-Suah. But she views this as a good thing because it keeps them on their toes.

MacDonald says screening patients rigorously before they can enter the hospital remains the institution's best defense. But she says the screening needs to be more than just taking patients' temperature. They may not have a fever because they've taken over-the-counter medication.

So the hospital has come up with a different strategy.

"Listen to the story," MacDonald says. "What I've told my staff is let them tell you their story in the Liberian vernacular. You empathize: What's wrong? How can I help you?"

She knows that if health workers simply go through a checklist, asking patients if they have a fever or if they've been vomiting, "everything is denied."

If the person is coming from an area that's had a lot of Ebola cases, or if they've had several deaths in their family recently those are red flags for MacDonald. She says sometimes that information can identify an Ebola suspect better than a thermometer or any checklist of self-reported symptoms.

ebola

Liberia

Hospitals

For the second consecutive year, a wide survey found people in Latin America are the least likely to say they live in countries where women are treated with respect and dignity, ranking below the Middle East and North Africa.

The Gallup survey found a wide range of opinions within Latin America: while 63 percent of respondents in Ecuador said women get respect, only 20 percent said the same in Peru and Colombia.

i i

A Gallup survey found that respect for women was strongest in Asia and Europe, and weakest in the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America. Gallup hide caption

itoggle caption Gallup

A Gallup survey found that respect for women was strongest in Asia and Europe, and weakest in the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America.

Gallup

"A median of 35 percent of adults across 22 Latin American countries said their women are treated [with respect] — about half as high as percentages in any other region of the world," Gallup says.

Asia ranked highest in the survey, with 76 percent saying women are respected. Europe wasn't far behind in second place, with 72 percent. The survey was conducted among thousands of people in some 150 countries in 2012 and 2013.

Ecuador was the only Latin American nation where more than 60 percent of respondents said women were respected, a result that Gallup's analysts attribute to new laws and awareness campaigns. It's one of just five countries in the region where more than 50 percent said women are treated with respect.

The survey also found an interesting disparity: In some countries, men were far more likely than women to say that women are respected. The widest gap was in Jamaica, where men were more than twice as likely to say women were respected (41 percent to 19 percent). Argentina had the second-largest gap (50 percent to 36 percent).

“Do you believe women in this country are treated with respect and dignity, or not?”

% Yes

% No

% Don't Know

Ecuador

63

35

2

Uruguay

57

38

5

Venezuela

54

43

3

Mexico

54

43

4

Panama

51

45

4

Suriname

47

49

4

Costa Rica

45

49

5

Argentina

43

54

3

Nicaragua

42

57

1

Chile

38

60

3

Haiti

37

59

4

El Salvador

32

63

5

Honduras

31

68

2

Dominican Republic

30

68

1

Jamaica

30

66

4

Bolivia

28

69

3

Paraguay

27

72

1

Brazil

27

69

4

Guatemala

27

72

1

Trinidad & Tobago

25

66

9

Colombia

20

78

2

Peru

20

76

4

Source: Gallup poll conducted in person and by telephone in 2012 and 2013. Margin of error ranged from ±3.5 percentage points to ±5.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Gallup says its survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with around 1,000 people in 19 Latin American countries, and 500 in three others.

Latin America

women

polls

Britain's Parliament has voted to support the recognition of a Palestinian state in a symbolic vote that follows a similar move by Sweden.

The BBC says the 274-to-12 vote in the House of Commons is being described by the chamber " 'as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution' — although less than half of MPs took part in the vote."

The Independent writes that the nonbinding resolution urges the government to "recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel" as part of a "contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution."

According to the newspaper:

"Support for the motion, while symbolic, marks a significant change in the political landscape, following the failure of successive peace negotiations and the bitter conflict in Gaza over the summer.

"Significantly Labour whipped its MPs to vote in favour of the resolution, raising the prospect that the party would defy Israel's wishes and recognise Palestine as a state should it come to power at the next election."

Reuters notes:

"Prime Minister David Cameron abstained from the vote, which was called by an opposition lawmaker, and Cameron's spokesman earlier said that foreign policy would not be affected whatever the outcome.

"However, the vote was closely watched by Palestinian and Israeli authorities who are seeking to gauge European countries' readiness to act on Palestinian hopes for unilateral recognition by U.N. member states."

The Associated Press says:

"The British House of Commons' vote Monday came nearly 100 years after Britain issued its famous Balfour Declaration in 1917, which affirmed its support for establishing a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Israel was founded in 1948.

"Israel's recent settlement activity, such as last month's approval of the construction of more Jewish housing in east Jerusalem, has 'a very corrosive effect on international opinion,' Britian's ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould told Israeli radio."

As we reported earlier this month, Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said his center-left government would recognize Palestine, although he did not say when that would occur.

More than 100 other countries have already recognized the Palestinian state.

Palestinians

Britain

Israel