You are absolutely correct, PetrusRomanus2.  The bishops' conferences SHOULD have enabled the bishops of a nation to earnestly keep their fingers on the pulse of the people of their nation.  Then, at their conferences, they should have discussed the needs, concerns, misunderstandings, of the people, with the intent to serve and care for their people.  THIS should have been encouraged by the Vatican, but it was not.


Today, with the issues of AL---the voice of the people needs to be heard especially.  THEY and THEY alone live the married life.  Although the documents of Vatican II and the 1983 Code of Canon Law refers to the need to consult the people ['the sense of the faithful], there is no structure for reading the 'public opinion" of the Church---the People of God.  What does it mean to speak of a 'sensus fidelium' if no one can ever find out what it is?