In the Consultation on Marriage and Family Life (Letters, 7 December), comments by the laity serve two purposes: first, contributing to the synod working document and, perhaps more importantly, briefing bishops’ conferences on the views of their laity. The working document is only the prelude to synod discussion and Pope Francis gives every indication of wanting a genuine debate reflecting the views of laity, clergy and bishops from each country. For that reason each bishops’ conference needs to be well briefed on the views of the laity and the points of importance to them.Benedict McHugo, Coulsdon, Surrey Amazon (Books) lists over 59,000 items under the heading “Research and Evaluation”. Evidently whoever drew up the Vatican family life survey had not consulted a