People in every corner of Australia and from various parts of the Catholic Church — and beyond — participated in the Listening and Dialogue phase of the Plenary Council, a new report shows.
The National Centre for Pastoral Research, which is currently conducting the analysis of individual and group submissions, has just released a summary of statistical data covering the period from May 2018 until March 2019.
NCPR director Trudy Dantis advised that the listing of topics that were discussed in people's submissions should not be seen as pre-empting the National Themes for Discernment, which will be announced on June 9 — Pentecost Sunday. Those themes will emerge from the qualitative analysis, while the report just released focuses on quantitative data.
Some of the largest groups to participate in the Listening and Dialogue phase included Catholic Social Services Victoria, a large parish in Canberra's growing northern suburbs and the Passionist Family Movement.
The top five countries of birth for respondents, after Australia, were the United Kingdom, the Philippines, New Zealand, India and Ireland.
Half of the individual submissions received came from women, while 29 per cent came from men. About 30 per cent of submissions did not include an answer to the question about sex.