A news channel rang me up over the weekend to ask me to go on the telly and comment on the online survey that the Bishops have put out which is part of the preparation for the forthcoming Synod on the family. I could not think of anything useful I could contribute on the matter, so declined the invitation. But as soon as I had put down the phone, a few thoughts did occur to me, which I can communicate the better, perhaps, in written form here. First of all “the survey” or whatever it should be called. Synods are serious matters, and a survey that elicited one word or simplistic answers would be worse than useless; this means that any survey that is worth its salt is going to be quite complex, in that it is dealing with sophisticated concepts. This also means that any such survey is going to be challenging to say the least, in that its content is going to be at war with its form. And this survey certainly reflects this. Just recently, Jonathan Freedland had this to say: