Vatican launches world survey on modern family life

[pinto]

24. If done in good faith, honestly from the parish level to the Bishops to the Vatican,

this may well be a good review of the role a very bureaucratic church plays in present day terms. I've read the "preparatory document". It's typically stilted, formal. Includes many Latin phrases and references to previous Vatican councils.

Although it's framed in established dogma it could provide an "on the ground" picture for the extremely insular Vatican hierarchy.

May be an attempt to move away from previous Papal opinions which advocated reforming the church around the strictly doctrinaire.

May be an attempt at revisiting the relatively more open "big tent" approach of John XXIII.

Or it may be a consideration of how to expand established church doctrine by simply stating them in more modern terms.

It'll be interesting to watch how it goes. Francis seems to have one foot planted in a more humanistic role for the church and the other in the historical, more dogmatic role.