Letters and articles in last week’s edition of The Tablet – and elsewhere – indicate that progressive Catholics were quite disappointed and even somewhat surprised that the preparatory document, or instrumentum laboris, for the forthcoming Extraordinary Synod on the Family simply repeated and reaffirmed existing papal teaching on contraception, sterilisation, in vitro fertilisation, homosexual relations and unions, cohabitation, and the indissolubility of marriage.The document recognises that many Catholics do not follow these teachings and blames this fact on the individualistic, relativistic and secularistic cultures in which many people live today, and also on the failure to present in its fullness the Catholic teaching on these issues. This approach has become common