They are publicly distancing themselves from endorsing same-sex “marriage,” but at the same time supporting church recognition of homosexual relationships and acts — sins that used to “cry to heaven for vengeance” until the church began softening its language 50 years ago.

The published aim of the October Synod on the Family, called by Pope Francis and to be attended by over 400 bishops and experts, is to look at how to better pastorally apply the church’s teaching on marriage and the family. But like last year’s synod on the family, it is already in danger of being derailed by powerful lobbies, some of whom are running the synod itself.

On Monday, 50 participants, including nine bishops and over 20 liberal theologians, attended a secretive “study-day” at Rome’s prestigious Gregorian Jesuit university. None of those attending opposed church recognition of same-sex relationships when it was explicitly proposed by one of the speakers.

The meeting took place at the invitation of the heads of the German, Swiss and French bishops’ conferences. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops and one of nine cardinals advising the Pope on church and Vatican reform, gave the meeting’s closing address.

Professor Manfred Spieker, a German church expert, wrote on the website Kathnet that the meeting was “divisive” and an abuse of the presidents’ offices, given that only those bishops sympathetic to the homosexual agenda were invited. He spoke scathingly of the event, saying it undermined the purpose and intent of the upcoming synod, and promoted views that have “schismatic potential.”

The study-day took place just days after a referendum in Ireland to allow same-sex marriage, leading some to believe the timing was not coincidental.

German Cardinal Walter Kasper, whose controversial theology Pope Francis admires, told Corriere della Sera May 27 that the Irish vote means the church needs to address the question of same-sex couples more fully, and that what was a “marginal topic” at the last Synod on the Family in October 2014, has now become “central.”

The church, he said, has been too silent about this issue for too long and, in later comments, said the church needs to “disarm” her language to try to make contact with the secular world. The church, he believes, needs to honor long-lasting same-sex relationships.

Such sentiments are roundly rejected by faithful Catholics who view this kind of approach as surrendering to secular values and sowing confusion.

But the church homosexual lobby, driven by ideology more than the well-being of souls of homosexuals themselves, is unlikely to be deterred.

One of the tools it is using to achieve its goal is the media. The major German publishing house, Herder, is to publish a large book in September — just a month before the synod — by a group of Catholic academics pushing the homosexual agenda.

Called “Who Am I to Judge?” after the Pope’s misquoted remark on the issue, it calls for more acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle on the grounds that condemning homosexuality no longer meets with a “positive response” among the faithful.

Although Pope Francis has warned of a homosexual lobby in the church, it remains unclear how serious he is in confronting it. A significant number of church leaders and academics and some of his closest advisers are pushing the agenda, but his silence and inaction in the face of such dissent is causing increasing distress among many faithful Catholics.

Church historian Roberto de Mattei observed that during the Irish referendum the Pope kept a “sepulchral silence” and, despite its gravity, chose instead to often rail against other evils such as “corruption, trafficking in arms and slaves, and the vanity of power and money.”

De Mattei and others feel that if the Pope, given his popularity, had strongly urged the Irish people to vote no a week or so before the ballot, it could have swung the result by as much as 10 percent, possibly enough to have led to a no vote.

By not doing so, they argue, not only was the Irish vote lost, but church divisions are being left to fester and deepen, driven by a wealthy and powerful German church that has all but lost its faith.

Last week, church figures in Germany publicly rebuked Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope’s deputy, for saying the Irish referendum result was a “defeat for humanity.” Meanwhile, media pressure is beginning to be exerted on those few German bishops who are resisting the homosexual lobby.

Arguably a positive element to all of this is that the homosexual lobby is being exposed as they look to the synod for their salvation. But the potential damage they will cause the church and souls in the meantime could be beyond measure.