Last week, the headline read: "Pope Francis is shaking things up again." And so he is. This time it has to do with the novel idea of inviting the whole Church to engage in a "SURVEY ON THE MODERN FAMILY."

What Francis wants to do is to take the pulse of Catholics the world over by inviting them to respond to a questionnaire that will disclose what Catholics think about the family and the many issues related to family life: marriage, mixed marriages, co-habitation, polygamy, single-parent homes, divorce, second marriages, children, adoption, same-sex unions, etc. (For Catholic News Service Article on this click here)

At St. Ignatius Church we are disseminating the seven-page document "Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization" for all our parishioners to read and discuss. In the meantime you can download and print it out by clicking here.

At our staff and pastoral council meetings this week, we will be "fine-tuning" a "forum process" so that each parishioner will have the opportunity to respond to the questionnaire.

Because this questionnaire is an unprecedented step on the part of the Church's leadership to canvass the world wide grass roots parishioners' experiences and thoughts about the continuing social and spiritual crises facing family life, it will be important that everyone read the seven-page document and be prepared to participate in one of the forums that will take place after each of the Masses on the weekend of December 7-8, the Second Sunday of Advent. We will record the responses of our parishioners, collate them and forward them to the office of Archbishop Lorenzo Baldesseri who is the General Secretary for the Synod of Bishops in Vatican City.

Finally, there is an article I wanted to share with you from John Allen at the National Catholic Reporter. I might have entitled it differently, but, oh well. It's called The Synod Turns Sexy. 

Gratefully, In Christ,