Bishops will receive the findings of a Church survey on sexuality and the family next week, more than a month after the Vatican deadline. Lead researcher Fr Joe Inguanez said yesterday the situation in Malta was no different from that in other dioceses worldwide.

“We were given an extension and are still in time to submit our findings to the Vatican,” Fr Inguanez said when contacted. This will be done after the bishops view the results.

The worldwide survey to understand how people viewed the Church’s teachings on thorny moral issues like divorce, same-sex unions and premarital sex was requested by Pope Francis last November.

The Maltese Church distributed questionnaires to every household and even posted a copy online. Respondents had until December 31 to submit their replies.

The findings will form the basis of a discussion world bishops will have in Rome in October.

With more than 7,000 people filling in the questionnaire, Fr Inguanez said the analysis was bound to take time.

Extracting the results of 100 open-ended questions – which allowed people to write their answer rather than choose from preset replies – took about five hours, he explained.

It was only the German and Swiss bishops who have published the initial findings so far. The Maltese bishops will get a first glimpse of people’s beliefs based on a sub-sample of 1,500 respondents chosen at random from the whole group.

We were given an extension and are still in time to submit our findings to the Vatican

Fr Inguanez said Discern, the Church’s research institute, sought advice on the matter and the use of a sub-sample was scientifically correct.

“It was necessary for us to have a sub-sample, which was scientifically, valid to be able to submit a preliminary report on the findings but all the 7,000 responses will be analysed and a full report will be drawn up in time for the October conference,” he noted.

The Church has pledged to publish the findings.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.