Ever wish there was an easy way you could chip in your two cents on various topics to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops—and from there to the Vatican? For the better part of the next month, you can, by participating in a confidential online survey that will be included as part of the XIV Ordinary Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in October.
The synod will address various questions and issues about the role of the family in the Church and in the wider world. The survey results, according to the bishops, will help in re-thinking “with renewed freshness and enthusiasm, what revelation, transmitted in the Church’s faith, tells us about the beauty, the role and the dignity of the family.”
The survey, says Bishop Kevin Vann, is “the second part of the process that was begin over a year ago to ask for broad consultation on the upcoming synod,” whose theme is “The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World.” The survey questions are taken from the text of the document produced by the bishops during their 2014 synod on the family and are divided into three sections:
1) Listening: The Context and Challenges of the Family;
2) Looking at Christ: The Gospel of the Family;
3) Confronting the Situation: Pastoral Perspectives.
There are a total of 46 questions included in the survey, and participants are invited to answer any or all of them. The spaces provided for answers online can accommodate any number of characters needed.
The deadline for submission of surveys is March 13. The answers from the Diocese of Orange will be compiled into a summary report and sent by Bishop Vann to Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who will in turn prepare an executive summary for the family synod in October.
To access the survey, go to the online address below: