"I was asked a question: what is the final document going to have to say to people who have same-sex attraction, have this aspect to their life? My answer was I think the whole document has something to say to everybody," Cupich said.
"We wanted to make sure everyone felt included by what we say. So whatever form that takes, our small group was for it."
The cardinal also referred people to research presented in the John Jay report, which he said shows that the root of priestly sexual abuse is not homosexuality, but many different causes.
Cardinal Ribat said they want to communicate that the Church is a home where everyone is welcome and accepted. He said young people have shared their experiences very freely and encouraged bishops to address it, "in the language they are using."
They say, "call us and address us as this because this is who we are," Ribat said.
The bishops were asked to clarify what they meant by welcoming and accepting young people with same-sex attraction. Bishop Alain de Raemy, auxiliary of Lausanne, Geneve, and Fribourg, Switzerland, said he is concerned with transmitting the Gospel to those who do not know it, and those who want to be Christian, but do not feel represented by the LGBT question.
Archbishop Comensoli said it is about recognizing that everyone is a sinner, and everyone needs to be found by God and receive his love.
"We are also the sinners who are called to be at the foot of the cross in our lives. So, in the sense of welcoming, of receiving, and of entering into the friendship of Christ, we also take our lives, me included, to the foot of the cross. And that's every single person," he said.
So, when he speaks with friends who might be homosexual or struggling with their sexual identity, he said, he speaks to the "with the friendship of Christ, as I ought to. And as a friend, I say, how do we progress together to the foot of the cross."
Addressing a concern expressed by many people before the start of the synod, that the Instrumentum laboris was too concerned with sociological ideas and terminology, rather than with the language of faith, Comensoli said he has seen a real shift in the last week of discussions, away from sociology and toward an incorporation of the teachings of the Church, theologians, Scripture, and saints.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.