Local Catholics asked to provide input to Vatican through survey

SALT LAKE CITY — Catholics around the world are being asked to participate in an historic event: a survey regarding their experiences of family life, marriage and sexuality.

The survey results will be sent to Rome to be included in the working document that will be used for the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that has been called for next October. The synod’s theme is "Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization."

"This is a wonderful opportunity for the ‘particular churches’ throughout the world to make important contributions to the work of the synod, contributions that will help to ensure that the work of the synod is addressing realistically the salient issues faced by families today," said the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City.

"This is an historic occasion," Bishop Wester said, noting that this is the first time such a survey of lay Catholics is being conducted for a synod.

"It’s wonderful that all of the dioceses of the world are being asked to do this," Bishop Wester said. "We’re participating in a very Catholic event. This is truly what it means to be Catholic – all the Catholics in the world, our brothers and sisters in Christ, are responding to this document."

Bishop Wester stressed the importance of participation in the survey, because he and his fellow bishops want the discussion during the synod "to be based on the realities that people are experiencing as family. We want an accurate picture of what families are experiencing – what their challenges are, what their joys are."

The survey covers a wide array of subjects, from Church teachings on the family to questions about divorced and remarried Catholics in regard to the sacraments, as well as same-sex unions.

In Utah, Bishop Wester has asked the diocesan priests to distribute the survey in English and Spanish in whatever manner is most efficient for their parish. The pastors are to collect and summarize the data from the surveys and submit it to their deans by Dec. 1. The deans are then to summarize this data from the parishes and submit it to the vicar general by Dec. 15.

Dioceses are to send their responses to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by the end of the year; the USCCB is to send its report to Rome by Jan. 30.

The survey also asks for demographic data from the parish, such as the number of families and the number of those who responded to the survey.

Pastors throughout the diocese have begun distributing the survey. At Saint Pius X Parish in Moab, Father Bill Wheaton handed copies to parishes after the Sunday Mass on Nov. 10. At the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Father Martin Diaz asked parishioners how they preferred to receive the survey; as a result, it will be available through email and as a hard copy, and they also are scheduling a parish meeting for those who prefer to meet as a group to respond.

"I think we’ll find that a lot of people will want to be involved with this," said Fr. Diaz, who is the president of the Diocese of Salt Lake City Presbyteral Council.

In addition to the 2014 synod, an Ordinary General Assembly in 2015 is being planned "to seek working guidelines in the pastoral care of the person and the family," according to the preparatory document for the Extraordinary General Assembly.

"The social and spiritual crisis, so evident in today’s world, is becoming a pastoral challenge in the Church’s evangelizing mission concerning the family, the vital building-block of society and the ecclesial community," the preparatory document reads in part. "Never before has proclaiming the Gospel on the Family in this context been more urgent and necessary. … Concerns which were unheard of until a few years ago have arisen today as a result of different situations, from the widespread practice of cohabitation, which does not lead to marriage, and sometimes even excludes the idea of it, to same-sex unions between persons, who are, not infrequently, permitted to adopt children. … Consequently, vast expectations exist concerning the decisions which are to be made pastorally regarding the family. A reflection on these issues by the Synod of Bishops, in addition to it being much needed and urgent, is a dutiful expression of charity towards those entrusted to the Bishops’ care and the entire human family."