Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, has warned against expectations that the Synod might lead immediately to people who have divorced and remarried to be allowed to receive Communion.
He stressed that the Synod decisions meant that priests should "be ready" to talk about it.
275 Synod members approved a 94-point final document endorsing Francis's call for a more merciful and less judgmental Church.
The most disputed section of the document does not chart a specific path to remarried Catholics receiving the sacraments - as originally sought by liberal prelates - but opens the door to case-by-case exceptions.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What I will be asking priests to do is to be ready.
"We will talk about it. I don't want anybody, as it were, to slap a quick sticking plaster over that, but rather to take care and to look at these things in the presence of God, with the mercy of God, not as in a court."
Cardinal Nichols offered advice to divorcees: "I'm saying 'Come and talk about it'."
The Cardinal added: "I'm very pleased with the work of the Synod, with the way it developed, with the expression of our shared opinions.
"I think it marks a definite choice of pathway for the Church which corresponds to Pope Francis's mind and it's a pathway that says we must respond carefully, attentively, humbly to all the situations in which the family finds itself in the world today.
"I would say there is real scope for deepening our theological understanding of family life, but I think more importantly this Synod has marked a path which means - I would call it - refreshment and re-sourcing of what in technical terms we call the pastoral care which the Church offers.
"What the Pope was saying was we can't just go on proclaiming doctrine and wagging a doctrinal finger, we have to get our hands dirty, as he says. Good theology is produced when teaching comes face to face with the messy circumstances that most of us live in in our lives.
"I think it's a step, because it puts to one side a voice which was there that wanted to say 'Everything is a matter of doctrine and a proclamation of doctrine. As long as we keep repeating our doctrine we will be alright'. The Pope said that is to bury your heads in the sand.
"I think Pope Francis will be very encouraged. In his last teaching document, he said he wanted the Church to advance along a path of pastoral and missionary conversion, because we cannot leave things as they are. I think this Synod helps him to do precisely that."
Cardinal Nichols acknowledged that the Synod was far from unanimous on the need for change, but said that its decisions had given the Pope the confidence to pursue the path he has chosen.
"Experience of this Synod has shown that while there are certainly disagreements among the people who are gathered there about priorities, it was very very clear that the freedom that we have in a Synod to express ourselves vigorously, with passion, comes - as Pope Francis said a year ago - because he is present, because he embodies the unity of the Church," said the Cardinal.
"That's what gives me the confidence that he now knows that he has the support of this important gathering to pursue the path that he has taken."
