Couples often marry after little or no preparation, and with little understanding of the kind of commitment they are making. The Synod on the Family has given a new impetus to attempts to put this right Rome’s recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops looked at family life and the importance of marriage. It looked at the pastoral challenges facing the family in the context of evangelisation; and it listened to husbands and wives speaking of the deep joy they had experienced in their marriages and family lives – as well as the difficulties they had overcome and the struggles they had faced.Cardinal Vincent Nichols issued a pastoral letter reflecting on the recent synod which was read out in all parishes in Westminster at Masses on the last weekend in October. He explained that the