NEW ZEALAND
NZ Catholic
by ROWENA OREJANA
WELLINGTON — The responses of more than 2000 New Zealand Catholics provided to the survey for the Third Extraordinary Synod on Marriage and Family showed Catholics feel that the Church is “out of touch”, even “hypocritical”, in some of its teachings. …
■ Definition of Family
Many of the respondents considered the Church’s definition of the family as a father, a mother and their children as lacking in understanding “of the diverse nature of modern families”.
Other family groupings like single-parent families, grandparents bringing up grandchildren, families blended from previous marriages as well as culturally sanctioned adoptions feel “inferior” to the traditional families.
Many also felt the reports of sexual abuse by the clergy have “undermined their faith in priests and bishops as teachers in matters of sexual morality”.
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