Consultative Church

As you say in your leader (“A truly Catholic consultation”, 9 November), the Vatican consultation on the family is unique. Equally groundbreaking is the decision of the bishops of England and Wales to circulate the questionnaire to the Church at large.

So far, so good. But the questions are fiendish in their generality and complexity. One conclusion I draw from this is that in the Church we need to learn to do consultation, and the more complicated the issue, the more time it takes and the more practice we need. In this new consultative Church, it is all the more important that we use the mechanisms prescribed in canon law for consulting the faithful, notably diocesan pastoral councils and parish councils.

In congratulating our bishops on their initiative in circulating the Vatican document, can we ask them to take the further step of ensuring that the existing processes of consultation are made operative in all the dioceses of England and Wales? It will be difficult at first, but practice makes perfect!

Francis McDonagh, London N4


The night before I filled in my Vatican questionnaire on the family, I stumbled across a programme on BBC3 about young people attending sexually transmitted disease clinics in the UK. The sight of these beautiful 18-year-olds being encouraged to humiliate and frighten themselves at these places, all in the name of “responsibility”, brought tears to my eyes. They were there after casual encounters, often fuelled by drugs and drink, and not one of the staff at these centres (of course) let any expression cross their faces except that of congratulation.

This is the big challenge facing family life today: to counter this culture of casual sex, drugs and drink, which no one really enjoys (except possibly the dealers and the porn kings), and which no one will challenge because they don’t want to sound like Mary Whitehouse. Our young people are being devastated mentally, physically and spiritually by this culture, and it hits them early. The computer on which I filled in the survey has been tweaked to prevent my primary-age boys from looking at porn on the internet. If the Vatican was to turn its attention, in a realistic way, to this problem, I think it would find many friends in unexpected places, inside and outside the Church.

Annabel Miller, Bristol


There are many Catholics in public service – including people in influential positions – who are used to commissioning research. It is a great pity the current survey did not call upon such expertise. As it is, we have a questionnaire which is cast totally in theological language, inaccessible to many Catholics – who would nevertheless have important insights to share. Also, the dissemination of the survey has been skewed (many Catholics have not heard about it), so it is hard to see how it will be representative. And most seriously of all, the very constituency that might afford the most valuable insights – those people who have been alienated from the Church on account of precisely the issues covered by the survey – will not be reached.

Could the Church in England and Wales supplement the questionnaire with some in-depth interviewing/use of focus groups – to extract some of the narratives/personal stories that lie behind the general issues, and illustrate their complexity? That would make for really thought-provoking reading.

Andrea Kelly, London N1


I predict yet another consultation fiasco, the results of which will play right into the hands of those still intent on preserving a status quo on matters sexual and marital, and end up as wrapping paper for the Vatican equivalent of fish and chips.

Thank God for Melanie McDonagh and those other mothers (“Poll of the pews”, 9 November) and their down-to-earth common sense but, once again, we are consulting them too little, and far too late.

(Fr) Edward Butler, Derrydruel Upper, County Donegal, Ireland


Although there is a passing reference in the introduction to mixed [Christian] marriages and inter-religious marriages needing the Church’s attention and pastoral care, there is no section in the questionnaire which asks us for our views on them. But all is not lost. Question 9 asks us to identify other challenges and proposals that we consider urgent and useful to treat. This offers an opportunity for interchurch couples themselves and for all concerned for their welfare to do their best to ensure that the pastoral needs of interchurch families are laid before the Synod on the Family.

Ruth Reardon