Laity at odds with church teaching, poll finds

Results of the Vatican questionnaire on marriage and the family show many Catholics acting at odds with church teaching, according to an analysis commissioned and approved by Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

The document prepared by Edmund Adamus, director for marriage and family life for the Diocese of Westminster, claims that Catholics in Westminster are lacking in any sense of spirituality in the home, are confused over what is meant by conscience when it comes to issues such as fertility and responsible parenthood, and need better and longer marriage guidance.

In what Cardinal Nichols has described as a “reflection” on the survey findings, Mr Adamus writes that the vast majority of baptised Catholics believe church teaching to be irrelevant and instead hold views influenced by popular culture and the “banalisation” of sex. The document appears as an article in the March edition of Westminster Record, the diocese’s official newspaper, sent to parishes this weekend.

The questionnaire, which was sent last year to parishes in advance of a special synod on family life in October, received 16,500 responses across England and Wales including 1,600 in Westminster.

“Clearly there is a great deal of confusion over what is meant by conscience,” writes Mr Adamus.  “Matters of conscience centre upon the issues of responsible parenthood and the regulation of fertility. Formation of the moral conscience, therefore, demands fresh efforts on many levels.” The article adds that “[the] consultation shows that only a minority of people have any appreciation of the profound value of … ­spirituality” expressed by simple acts in the home.

Marriage guidance must be “more widely available, excellent in content and adequate in length”, writes Mr Adamus, who warns of the “enormous scale of the challenge facing parents and grandparents” over passing on the faith through generations “against the backdrop of aggressive secularism and the IT [information technology] revolution”.