A report issued today is one of the first steps being taken by the Catholic Church to make the Church more open to families and couples with children.

The report summarises the results of Listening 2004, a survey of 15,000 families, by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. The report is the first step in a 3-year plan to integrate families into the Church, launched last year as part of the tenth-anniversary celebrations of the UN Year of the Family.

The results of the survey reveal real challenges for the Church to complete the plan over the course of the next two years.

According to the report, Roman Catholic families feel overwhelmed by a "tide of materialism" and what to see more support from the Church in countering it.

The report also found that the burdensome "work ethic" and constant exam pressure on children left families too tired to attend mass.

The 90-page report, entitled Not Easy But Full of Meaning, was carried out by the Church in order to understand better the interplay between pressures of modern life and family spirituality. The report also focused on the role parents and grandparents play in passing on the faith to children.

The comments by survey participants noted general discontent with the Church for not providing the appropriate family ethos at Church. One family complained, "Family life will always seem second best when celibacy is held up as the ideal," while another said: "We have been unable to have children and feel such a failure at Mass."

A family from Nottingham summed up the difficulties of modern life: "Pressure on appearance, consumerism, selfishness, non-permanent relationships, competition and Godlessness."

Parents also felt burdened by financial pressure, which gives many families little choice other than to send both parents to work.

The report also stated that a lack of time or energy has left parishes unsupported by the laity, vital in keeping many parishes clean, and in service within the community.

The Right Rev John Hine, an auxiliary bishop in Southwark, and also chair of the Church’s marriage and family life committee, complained of the neglect of God within the Church’s families: "Despite the fact that families described their biggest blessing as their time spent together, hardly anyone talked about God’s presence in that togetherness. Perhaps as a Church we should address this together."