Questionnaire ‘too fixated on ideal image of the family’

The German bishops’ conference summarised and commented on Catholics’ replies to the 46 questions of the second Vatican questionnaire on the family, in an 18-page report issued on 20 April.

The main criticism, which applies to all parts of the questionnaire, the bishops point out, is that it proceeds from an idealised image of the family which does not adequately relate to the reality of life in German society.

Many of those who replied said that idealising marriage and the family did not appeal to Catholics in Germany and put them off sacramental church marriage. That is why many would like to see definite steps taken before the October Synod to overcome the gulf between family life as it is lived and church teaching.

The questionnaire had not found an “appreciative language for relationships which neither corresponded to the Church’s ideals nor were definitely orientated towards marriage and the family”, the report says. Those responsible in the Vatican for the coming synod would be “well-advised to get down to a really committed, sound and communicative preparation”, said Bishop Heiner Koch of Dresden, who holds the bishops’ family affairs brief.