Two years ago the demands of office caused a tired Pope Benedict XVI to resign the papacy. He was 85. Now we have Pope Francis, 78, musing about a short pontificate as he begins his third year on the job.

Twenty of the 70 Catholic dioceses in Canada are using their web sites to ask Catholics for opinions about family life — questions that range from how the Church can welcome families with gay members to how economics and media are shaping family life.

OTTAWA - The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) released a revised set of questions Feb. 10 for the upcoming Synod on the Family, but maintain that the consultations’ results will stay private.

TORONTO - Giving advice to the Pope is not a one-way street. It begins with Pope Francis giving advice to his advisors — including Canadian theologian Moira McQueen.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis used his weekly audience Dec. 10 to challenge media reports of “clashes between factions” at the recent bishops’ Synod on family issues.

To help set the agenda for the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family, the Vatican is sending the world's Catholic bishops' conferences a list of questions on a range of topics, including matters of marriage and sexuality that proved especially controversial at the 2014 family Synod.

OTTAWA - Bishops who attend Synods should spend more time in group discussions and less time listening to each other’s speeches, Gatineau Archbishop Paul-André Durocher proposed to Pope Francis.

OTTAWA - Church teaching is not in for a radical overhaul, despite what made the headlines from the recent Synod on the family at the Vatican, say Ottawa’s bishops. 

With another, bigger Synod coming next October to discuss Christian family life, Canadian bishops are beginning to ask themselves: “What next?”

MANILA, Philippines - Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila said the Synod of Bishops on the family was more than a series of discussions on divorce and gay unions and that the impact of poverty on families, especially in Asia, was a major concern of participants.

ROME - Looking ahead to the October 2015 world Synod of Bishops on the family, Cardinal George Pell said the task for Catholics "over the next 12 months" is to explain "the necessity of conversion, the nature of the Mass," and "the purity of heart the Scriptures require of us to receive holy Communion."

The Canadian contribution to the final report of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family comes up in paragraph 10, where synod fathers speak of dangers of the Internet.

One of the world’s wisest voices was not heard during the synod fortnight in Rome. His time to speak publicly is definitively past, but it behooves the Church to listen now to what he said then. 

Pope Francis sought a “sincere and open” discussion among Church leaders attending the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family. Well, he got it. And then some.

VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said the Oct. 5-19 Synod of Bishops on the family came to a "real consensus" after two weeks of animated debate, and that its final report will serve as a solid basis for the world synod on the family in 2015.