Questions
on birth control, divorce and gay marriage designed to gather global snapshot
of Catholic attitudes
 |
| Pope Francis: emphasis on local leaders. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/AP |
The Vatican
is conducting a worldwide survey on how parishes deal with sensitive issues
such as birth control, divorce and gay marriage, seeking input ahead of a
meeting on the family that Pope Francis plans next year.
The poll
was sent in mid-October to every national conference of bishops with a request
from the Vatican co-ordinator, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, to "share it
immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from
local sources can be received".
The survey
reflects the pope's pledges to move away from what he called a
"Vatican-centric" approach towards one in which local church leaders
are more involved in decision-making.
Among the
questions are whether gay marriage is recognised in their country and how
priests minister to same-sex couples, including how churches can respond when
gays seek a religious education or Holy Communion for their children. The poll
also asks "how is God's mercy proclaimed" to separated, divorced and
remarried couples. Additional information is sought on the pastoral care of men
and women who live together outside marriage. The survey also asks parishes
whether they believe married men and women tend to follow church teaching
barring the use of artificial contraception.
The US
National Catholic Reporter reported the survey on Thursday and posted a copy
online.
Helen
Osman, a spokeswoman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington,
confirmed plans for the poll to the Associated Press.
"It
will be up to each bishop to determine what would be the most useful way of
gathering information to provide to Rome," Osman wrote in an email. In
England, bishops have posted the survey online to be filled in by a wide range
of Catholics, including priests, lay people, parents and nuns.
The poll
findings will help set the agenda for an extraordinary synod of the presidents
of national bishops conferences in October 2014.
The
introduction to the survey lays out a broad list of concerns which the document
says "were unheard of until a few years ago", including single-parent
families, polygamy, interfaith marriages and "forms of feminism hostile to
the church". Surrogate motherhood is lamented in the document as
"wombs for hire", and the survey cites as a new challenge
"same-sex unions between persons who are, not infrequently, permitted to
adopt children".
Francis has
said the church needs to do a better job preparing young people for marriage,
lamenting that newlyweds seem to think marriage is not a lifelong commitment
but just a "provisional" one. At the same time, he has said the
church process for annulling marriages is not working and must be reviewed.
The pope's
emphasis on reforming the Vatican bureaucracy and boosting the participation of
local church leaders and lay people has prompted speculation about how
far-reaching his changes could be.
He has
urged pastors to focus on being merciful and welcoming rather than emphasising
only such divisive issues as abortion, gay marriage and contraception. At the
same time, he has made clear his support for traditional marriage and
opposition to abortion.
The
introduction to the survey extensively quotes former popes and the Catholic
catechism on marriage being the union of a man and a woman for the purpose of
having children.
Baldisseri,
secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, wrote in his letter that the meeting
next year would be followed by another on the same topic in 2015.
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