Vatican asking parishes about gay marriage, birth control, divorce

The Vatican is taking the unusual step of conducting a worldwide survey on how parishes deal with issues such as birth control, divorce and gay marriage, seeking input ahead of a major meeting on the family that Pope Francis plans next year.

The poll was sent in mid-October to every national conference of bishops with a request from the Vatican coordinator, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, to “share it immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources can be received.”

The survey reflects the pope’s pledges to move away from what he called a “Vatican-centric” approach toward one where local church leaders are more involved in decision-making.

I’m digging the new pope. I think relaxing the rules on divorce and communion is pretty likely. Also removing the celibacy rule for priests would be huge and solve a lot of problems for the church. It’ll be interesting to see how much he can get done.