text: On October 5-19, 2014 Pope Francis convoked the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to discuss the theme "Pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization". Prior to this, people at the grassroots level were given the opportunity to participate in the consultation process.  The comments came from thousands and thousands of people from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Malta, and Switzerland.  At the same time, a Spanish-language media company---Univision Communications---published the results of the global survey of Catholic opinion sent to 12,038 Catholics in twelve countries; Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, USA, Italy, Colombia, France, Poland, Spain, Democratic Republic of Congo, Argentina and Uganda. Together, these nations account for 60 percent of the world's Catholic population. The people expressed views on contraception, on abortion, and on the admission of the divorced and remarried to the sacraments that are at odds with conservatives.