The Archbishop of Westminister, Vincent Nichols is urging Catholics in England and Wales to complete ‘the pope’s survey’.
So far around 5,000 people from England and Wales have filled in the survey.
Elizabeth Davies, marriage and family life project officer, told the Catholic Herald that 15,000 people had accessed the survey so far but only a third of those had submitted responses to the questions.
About 11,500 had got as far as filling in their age.
She said a few responses had been “a bit mischievous” and some respondents had declared themselves to be non-Catholic. She emphasised, though, that the responses had been “very thoughtful”.
Talking with BBC Breakfast, Archbishop Nichols society has moved to a different perspective on some issues.
“The Pope has led us to pay attention to the experiences of people,” said Archbishop Nichols.
“On the one hand we must work to follow Christ, but on the other hand we have to face all of the ambitions of modern living.”
“Listening never did us any harm,” he said.
“God gave us one mouth and two ears. The fact that we may hear things that make us uncomfortable – that’s fine.”
The Council of the Synod of Bishops with the full backing of Pope Francis wants to get input from the Church’s grassroots.
Rather than getting “a synthesis of what the bishops think on a subject” the purpose of the survey is” to get the pulse of the grassroots of the base of the Church”, Archbishop Bruno Forte, secretary for the 2014 extraordinary synod synod on marriage and family, told Catholic Universe.
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