“In Japan new family ministry is needed.” The Bishops‘ Conference of this Asian country has commented on the many critical issues identified by the questionnaire for the Extraordinary Synod on the Family.
 
Japanese society is becoming increasingly unfamiliar with the Church‘s teaching on the topic of the family, marriage and the defense of life. This is the picture that emerges from the responses of the Japanese faithful to the questionnaire in preparation for the Extraordinary Synod for the Family, which will be celebrated in the Vatican next October. This alarming discovery has prompted the Japanese Bishops‘ Conference to indicate just how urgent it is to revive the pastoral care of families, with special concern for all those who have difficulties following the rules of the Church, for whom we must actively care so that they may be more involved in the life of the Christian community: “Faced with the crisis of faith, which is also a crisis of love—say the Bishops of this Asian country—, it is more urgent than ever to involve families, so that they can be a place where the dignity of each person is recognized by the others and where people come together to pray.”
In addition to the low interest shown for issues such as contraception, abortion and AIDS prevention, among other critical issues highlighted by the answers to the questionnaire are the absence of pastoral programs that educate in the faith or accompany couples in marital crisis, the increase of the phenomenon of cohabitation, the rise of the divorce rate, the lack of interest with respect to the dangers of gay marriage, and the large number of spouses from different religions: mixed marriages are a major impediment to the transmission of the faith from parents to children.