If the six questions published by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales are intended to elicit the views of the wide and varied Catholic population in this country, including those who currently feel excluded from the life of the church for various reasons, they should be much more focused on the issues that concern most people. The questions seem to steer clear of those issues! How are the responses to be analysed if there is a big response to the consultation, bearing in mind that the questions seek qualitative responses? There are no quantitative “yes”, “no”, “maybe” questions.
If the Church is to listen to people and their concerns, the methods of communication have to be appropriate if real listening is to take place. Therefore, a number of methods should be used in this consultation to reach not only the more informed and enlightened Catholics but also those who are currently either, not regular churchgoers, or feel excluded because of their personal circumstances.
The Australian Bishops’ Conference consultation document goes some way to unpacking the original 46 questions but even that is couched in language that many ordinary Catholics might find too complex! A much more accessible and simpler set of questions should be available for people who cannot relate to those set by the Bishops Conference of England and Wales.
We should be consulting people who attend church and those who do not, for example the large proportion of “Catholic” parents who send their children to a Catholic school but who do not go to church.
Also we don’t know if responses from individuals or groups that follow different formats will be accepted by our bishops’ conference. This needs to be clarified as soon as possible.
Trevor Stockton, Wolverhampton
The bishops have not given Catholics in this country a pastoral letter summarising the results of the recent synod on marriage and family life or inviting further consultation in preparation for the follow-up synod later this year.
However, the 42 per cent of marriages ending in divorce and more than a million children growing up without contact with their fathers (Tablet 24th January) are not left without hope.
The Bishop of Portsmouth is bringing over the relics of the parents of St Therese of Lisieux. So simple a solution to the problems of marriage and family life – why did nobody think of it before?
Harry Russell, Burghfield Common, Berkshire
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