As an emeritus bishop, I no longer attend the meetings of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and so I am not party to decisions which are taken by the conference. However, I have been involved – at the grass roots – in helping others to make sense of and struggle with the recent Vatican questionnaire on marriage and family life. Difficult though some of the questions were – and I struggled with them myself – I was delighted that the questionnaire was made public. At last, under the leadership of Pope Francis, an attempt was being made to involve as many people as possible in the debate leading up to the forthcoming Synod of Bishops on Marriage and Family Life. This was a new departure for the Vatican and one which was widely welcomed. While welcomin