More than 4300 people from around the world completed a questionnaire on www.thetablet.co.uk between 3 and 14 October about what they'd like to see from the synod on the family.

Nearly 85 per cent of respondents were from the United States or the United Kingdom.

Men respondents outnumbered women by a two to one ratio.

In the US, the survey was highlighted on conservative blogs.

Of the divorced and civilly remarried (without an annulment) survey respondents who receive Communion, ten per cent do so with the permission of a priest.

Catholics in Britain and Ireland in such circumstances were almost twice as likely as US Catholics to receive Communion without having sought priestly permission (29 per cent to 17 per cent).

Of the priests who responded, more than a third said the ban on artificial contraception could be ignored in good conscience and that cohabitation could be an acceptable stage en route to marriage.

Respondents said the best way for the Church to support marriage and family life was to run courses for married couples, while also clearly setting out its teaching on sexual matters.

Practising Catholics said the chief threats to marriage and family life were: artificial contraception; gay marriage and adoption; pressure caused by long working hours, money worries and unemployment; and the proliferation of pornography.

Almost three-quarters of practising Catholics welcomed the presence of lay people at the synod, with one-quarter saying they wished more had been invited to attend and to be involved in decision-making.

Meanwhile, a Pew Research Center survey in the United States has found that 85 per cent of Catholics aged between 18 and 29 feel that homosexuality should be accepted by society.

Among church-going Catholics of all ages who attend Mass at least once a week, twice as many say homosexuality should be accepted (60 per cent) as say it should be discouraged (31 per cent).

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Tablet
• Pew Research Center
• Image: Catholic Herald

Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh has ordered the Edinburgh Circle of the Newman Association to cancel an event at which Professor Tina Beattie was due to speak this month.

The archbishop was acting on instructions from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In a July letter which was only revealed last week, he wrote: "Professor Beattie is known to have frequently called into question the Church's teaching.

"I would therefore ask you to cancel this event, as it may not proceed or be publicised on any Church property in this archdiocese."

The archbishop also rebuked the association for organising a talk by theologian Joe Fitzpatrick, who has written a book critiquing original sin and seeking to make Genesis compatible with evolution.

Archbishop Cushley said that dogmatic teaching can't be brought into question on Church property.

Professor Beattie, Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Roehampton, was prevented from undertaking engagements in Catholic institutions in two countries in 2012.

She was told one cancellation was because she had been a signatory to a letter in The Times in London arguing that Catholics could support civil same-sex marriage in good conscience.

On September 2, Professor Beattie wrote to Archbishop Cushley expressing her concern at his July decision, but has yet to hear a reply.

"You say that I am ‘known to have frequently called into question the Church's teaching'. Known by whom, in what context and with reference to which of my published works?" she queried.

"Never in my published writings or talks have [I] questioned any of the doctrinal mysteries of the Catholic Faith.

"On the contrary, I have consistently argued in defence of even the most frequently challenged doctrines of the Church."

She wrote that she believes that Catholics could enter a "more reasoned and nuanced public dialogue" about same-sex marriage than the hierarchy allowed.

The Edinburgh association has been offered a meeting with diocesan officials including Msgr Patrick Burke, one the archdiocese's vicars-general and formerly of the CDF.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Guardian
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Reform Magazine

The Tablet suspended Mickens in March after he called Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI "The Rat" and anticipated his death in a Facebook comment.

The publication stated an inquiry would be carried out.

About a month later, a brief message appeared on The Tablet's website stating: "After serious consideration, The Tablet and Robert Mickens have come to a mutual agreement that he will no longer be the journal's Rome correspondent."

Continue reading

Even a cardinal, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has called for "proper reform to the sacrament" - an idea Pope Francis has signalled he does not want to look at.

Recently I came across some models of the life journey.

The first was of a wavy line that began with the 'I' at the bottom and 'God' at the top.

Life was a journey to God, and was about taking up one's cross, denying self, acquiring virtue, learning to pray, and stop sinning. That was the way to get to God.

I suspect that model will resonate with older people but I have been told by younger Catholics that they, too, drift into that mind set as well. Weekly confession, especially for priests and religious was part of the journey in this model.

Model two was the same wavy line but right beside the contours was a second parallel line, the God who was with us, from birth to death, encompassing, carrying, accompanying us every step of the way. Continue reading.

Br Kieran Fenn is a Marist teaching Brother who lives in a young adult community in Wellington, and has spent many years teaching the Bible in New Zealand and abroad.

Source: The Tablet Blog

Image: CNS/The Catholic Sun

One sentence in the official document accompanying the Vatican's questionnaire is an example of this. As a result of the current situation, it states, "many children and young people will never see their parents receive the sacraments …", in the light of which "we understand just how urgent are the challenges to evangelisation arising from the current situation".

This is doubtless a reference to the Church's current policy regarding Catholics who divorce and remarry and are then told they may not receive Holy Communion, for it then says: "Corresponding in a particular manner to this reality today is the wide acceptance of the teaching on divine mercy."

In short, how does the Church start evangelising such people - and their children - and stop condemning them?

This unique consultation is taking place as part of the preparations for the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops that Pope Francis has called for next October.

There is a growing head of steam behind this plea.

The Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, wrote in a recent pastoral letter that he hopes the synod finds "some way" of offering mercy, help and reconciliation to Catholics in irregular unions or who are divorced and remarried - and he is one of the more conservative bishops in England.

This has already become a key battleground of this papacy, with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, denying that mercy has anything to do with it, thereby bringing him into confrontation with key members of the German hierarchy. Continue reading.

Catherine Pepinster is the Editor of the London Tablet.

Source: The Tablet

Image: CNS/Paul Haring

Scarcely a month after taking office, he created an international group of eight cardinals to advise him on reform of the Roman Curia.

Only one of them was a Vatican official; the others came from Australia, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Germany, Honduras, India, and the US, and some of them were outspoken critics of Vatican operations.

As secretary, he appointed an Italian bishop who had recently gone on record for saying that bishops should be men of service, not men of power.

On 1 October, this commission, now officially constituted as the Pope's permanent advisory body, met for the first time for three days of closed-door discussion, during which the Pope listened more than he spoke.

In a long interview given a week earlier to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica to be published on the opening day of the meeting Pope Francis stated that, in creating this body, he wanted 'advisers', not 'courtiers' and that he intended it as a first step in making the Church 'an organisation that is not just top-down but also horizontal'.

Candidly, he expressed his criticism of the Curia and outlined his programme of reform. Continue reading.

Fr Hans Küng is a theologian and author based in Tübingen, Germany.

Source: The Tablet Blog

Image: Living Wittily