VATICAN CITY — In a sweeping document on family life that opened a door to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Francis insisted Friday that church doctrine cannot be the final word in answering tricky moral questions and that Catholics must be guided by their own informed consciences.

Francis didn’t create a church-wide admission to Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics as some progressives had wanted. But in the document “The Joy of Love,” he suggested that bishops and priests could do so on a case-by-case basis.

The pope also strongly upheld the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

The 256-page document is a plea from Francis’ heart for the church to stop hectoring Catholics about how to live their lives and instead find the redeeming value in their imperfect relationships.

“I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion,” he wrote. “But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness.”

Gay Catholics were highly critical, saying Francis had failed them. The document offered nothing significant beyond existing church teaching that gays are not to be discriminated against and are to be welcomed into the church with respect and dignity. It repeated the church’s position that same-sex unions can in no way be equivalent to marriage between a man and woman.

On contraception, Francis stressed that a couple’s individual conscience educated in church teaching must guide their decisions and the church’s pastoral practice.