The Vatican’s “extraordinary synod of bishops” concluded last weekend with the beatification of Pope Paul VI, an interim step on the road to sainthood.

But those who were disappointed that this wasn’t the “extraordinary” ending to a momentous meeting misunderstand what the synod was meant to accomplish.

When clergymen and laypeople gathered in Rome in early October to begin discussing the challenges of marriage and family in modern times, hopes were high, particularly among progressive Catholics, that the synod would conclude with a dramatic shift in church doctrine.

Headlines after the release of the gathering’s interim report, the Relatio post disceptationem, further fueled such expectations.

“A bombshell document at the Vatican synod,” heralded one article in the The New Yorker. Other analysts said the document signified an “earthquake” in church teaching.

A substantial amount of ink was devoted to only one of the report’s 58 sections, the one titled “Welcoming homosexual persons,” although this was but one of dozens of delicate issues addressed during the two-week meeting.

While significant disagreement between conservative and liberal Catholics over the actual meaning of the draft document quickly ensued, careful readers of the report — which, it should be noted, is not an authoritative document of the church but “proposed reflections, the fruit of synodal discussion which took place in great freedom and a spirit of reciprocal listening” — stated correctly that most of its mainstream interpretations were aspirational, if not wildly overblown.

“Much of what has been hailed as a great discovery in this document is in fact not a discovery at all, but a truth so plain and old that it seems odd to call it revolutionary,” Michael Brendan Dougherty wrote in The Week.

Despite the consternation it caused, the report largely reaffirms what have long been the teachings of a faith built on love and mercy — that all individuals, no matter their state in life, are welcome to enter into a full life with Christ.

After the initial media frenzy, it became abundantly clear that the report, even before its revision, in no way modified church doctrine.

That doesn’t mean it hasn’t caused confusion.

The Rev. Dwight Longenecker illustrated how much the muddled reporting on the synod has puzzled some parishioners. “One woman married outside the church and told me that she thought it was now OK for her to come to Communion because ‘The pope has changed all those old rules.’ Another man has divorced his wife and is living with another woman. He also assured me very confidently that it was now fine for him to come to Communion because ‘Pope Francis has changed the rules.’ “

But rule-changing was never in the cards for this synod, as Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, the synod’s “relator,” clearly stated at its outset.

Indeed, the synod was always intended to be about tone — a hallmark of Pope Francis’ papacy. And in that regard, it did not disappoint. The church was right to engage these difficult issues with an openness and empathy that has sometimes evaded even the most well-intentioned clergy.

But as Longenecker explains, accepting and applying Francis’ pastoral message is possible only “if the timeless truths of the Catholic faith are firmly defined and defended. Compassion without content is mere sentimentality. Mercy without truth is an empty gesture. Kindness without correction is cowardly.”

How the church presents the faith is changeable, but the faith itself is immovable.

Still, it’s important to note that the synod was only the beginning of the church’s deep exploration of the manifold challenges faced by Catholics caught between religious devotion and the temptations of an often more appealing secular world.

As Francis said at the synod’s conclusion, “We still have one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families must confront.”

That task will warrant more reflection, but is certainly worthy of taking on.

Cynthia M. Allen is a columnist for the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.