Vatican launches global survey on modern family life The questionnaire asks whether the Church's teaching on homosexuality, the sanctity of the family and divorce is "accepted fully or are there difficulties in putting it into practise?" It asks: "To what extent is this teaching...rejected and/or criticised in areas outside the Church?" "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... to same-sex unions between persons, who are, not infrequently, permitted to adopt children," said a letter sent to the national bishops" conferences. There were "many new situations requiring the Church's attention and pastoral care," it said. On remarried divorcees, who are not allowed to receive Holy Communion in a Catholic church under the Vatican's current rules, the questionnaire asks: "Do they feel marginalised or suffer from the impossibility of receiving the sacraments?" On gay marriage, the questionnaire asks: "Is there a law in your country recognising civil unions for people of the same sex and equating it in some way to marriage?" The initiative reflects the more open, inclusive style struck by Pope Francis since he succeeded Benedict XVI in March following the ailing German pontiff's shock decision to resign. Although Francis has signalled no significant changes to Church doctrine, he has expressed a softer, more sympathetic approach on issues such as homosexuality. "If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?" he said at the end of his week-long trip to Brazil in July. He has also said that he wants to decentralise the Church, wrestling power away from the hierarchy and giving greater responsibility to local bishops and priests in different parts of the world. In an interview published in September, the Jesuit Pope said the Church must move away from its "obsession" with condemning homosexuality, abortion and contraception and become kinder and more merciful. Otherwise it risked collapsing "like a house of cards." In England, bishops have posted the survey online so that anyone, including Anglicans and other non-Catholics, can respond.