Church seeks views on family
Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Monday, 9 March 2015 AT 11:10 PM IST
Pune Diocese, survey, christians, family, Father Roque Alphonse, Camil Parkhe
http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=5373316677985569020&SectionId=5171561142064258099&SectionName=Pune&NewsTitle=Church+seeks+views+on+family
Pune: The Pune Diocese has undertaken a survey of Catholics on the issue of family-related matters including divorces and live-in relationships as preparation for the synod on family issues to be held in Rome in October this year. The diocese has circulated a questionnaire to its various parishes and other church institutions, asking the faithful to respond to various questions related to family including relationship between spouses, parenting, marriage preparation courses, contraception, abortion and homosexual tendencies.
Fr Roque Alphonso, director of family apostolate of Pune diocese, said that the survey is a part of the global-level preparation for the proposed synod on family convened by Pope Francis at Vatican City.
The Church members are asked to reply to questions as to how the Church can care for those who seek annulment/ divorce and those in irregular marriages and how to counter negative social influences. The questionnaire has been drafted in English and Marathi.
The diocese-level survey will be completed before March 20 and the data will be sent to Dharmapuri Bishop Lawrence Pius, chairman of Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) Family Commission. It has aimed at reaching out to one lakh people to know their views on family matters. The proposed synod in Rome is a sequel to the synod held on the same theme last year.
Christians to meet on March 15
Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre has convened a meeting of Christians belonging to various denominations on Sunday, March 15, to plan programmes to highlight the present situation of the Christians in the country.
The meeting will be held at St Patrick’s Cathedral’s Bishop Valerian Hall at 4 pm.
The meeting will finalise three programmes including a session of prayer and fast, a seminar to raise awareness about the need of community action to address the present situation of the Christians in the country and to organise a prayer procession to highlight the issues of the community.
The proposed meeting is subsequent to an inter-denominational Christians meet held in the city a fortnight ago to discuss the series of attacks on churches and the Ghar Wapsi campaign.
The meet was attended by Bishop Dabre and Church of North India’s Pune Bishop Andrew Rathod and Bishop Naresh Ambala.
