A major Vatican summit of global Catholic leaders ended on Saturday (October 26) with a call for women to be granted more leadership roles in the Church but stopped short of calling for women to be ordained as clergy.

The gathering, which included cardinals, bishops and lay people from more than 110 countries, also did not take a stand on inclusion of the LGBTQ community, despite discussion that it might call on the Church to be more welcoming.

Pope Francis called the month-long summit, known as a Synod of Bishops, to consider the future of the worldwide Church. It was the second of two gatherings, held a year apart, and featured closed-door discussions among 368 "members" with voting rights, including nearly 60 women.

Advocates for greater roles for women in the Church had hoped the synod might call for women to serve as deacons. In its final text, the synod did not move forward on that possibility, but said "there is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church."

The question of women deacons, the document said, "remains open" and "discernment needs to continue."

The synod's final document, a 52-page text approved by the assembly late Saturday afternoon, also called for lay Catholics to be given a greater voice in the selection of bishops, and apologized several times for the "untold and ongoing" pain suffered by Catholics who were abused by clergy.

The text's 155 paragraphs each required a two-thirds vote for approval. The paragraph on women deacons received the most no votes, 258-97, but still passed.

Francis had been expected to issue his own document responding to the synod text, but he told the assembly he was no longer planning to do so. The pope said he instead wanted to offer the synod's text as a "gift" to the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

The pope is due to formally close the synod gathering with a Mass on Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica.