Responses to the worldwide consultation in preparation for this autumn’s Extraordinary Synod of Bishops suggest that, with regard to the issue of divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Holy Communion, a consensus exists around three propositions. The first is that the existing method of dealing with second marriages in the Church is doing more harm than good. The second is that the system whereby canon law tribunals deal with petitions for marriage annulment needs thorough overhaul. But the third provides the basic context within which the other two must be approached – that the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage is good and must be upheld. That is surely the fundamental point that Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the F