Pope: children need mother and a father He also condemned divorce, saying it had brought "spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable." There was "mounting" evidence that the decline of marriage led to increased poverty "and a host of other social ills," particularly for women and children, the Pope said. The remarks came just weeks after a worldwide summit, or synod, at the Vatican, in which cardinals and bishops clashed openly over the Church's stance on sensitive topics such as single parent families and homosexuality. The three-day conference, which involves representatives from more than a dozen religions, was organised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees the enforcement of Catholic dogma. Its conservative head, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, helped lead much of the opposition to the Pope's reformist agenda at the synod in October. While the Pope called for a spirit of welcome to be shown to Catholic gays and divorcees who remarry, conservatives insisted that marriage must remain an institution solely between a man and a woman and that it should be indissoluble. It was dangerous for the Pope to tamper with long-held dogma and tradition, they said. One leading conservative, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, said the Pope had created great confusion with the ambiguity of the remarks he has made since being appointed in March last year. Does he not realise the repercussions? Perhaps he doesn't," Cardinal George, who is suffering from cancer and will retire this week, told The Boston Globe at the weekend. I don't know whether he's conscious of all the consequences of some of the things he's said and done that raise doubts in people's minds. The Pope's reformist rhetoric had created expectations among Catholic liberals that "he can't possibly meet." "At a certain moment, people who have painted him as a player in their own scenarios about changes in the Church will discover that's not who he is," the 77-year-old cardinal said. The Pope will come face-to-face with the conservative backlash among some American Catholics after announcing that he will visit the US next year. In what will be his first trip to the US as pontiff, he will go to Philadelphia for a Catholic convention on the family in September. He is also expected to address Congress and to deliver a speech to the United Nations in New York to mark its 70th anniversary.