A reader passes this on, from the Catholic Times (a Canadian diocesan paper? …the Canadian Catholic paper? I don’t know..), in regard to the letter sent to the Canadian bishops blogged here.

Fr Luc Lantagne, SDB, superior of the Salesians of St. John Bosco in Canada, called the CRC to critique the document. He told the Catholic Times that he does not believe, based on his experience, that the document is widely representative of the religious in Canada.

The critical aspects of the document do not represent the Canadian Salesian’s views, he stated in a telephone interview. The Salesian Fathers did not respond to the survey. "I read the questions on the survey and knew where it was headed, so I didn’t fill it out," he explained. "It’s not the direction in which the Salesians are going."

He pointed out that some surveys were sent to and submitted by individuals rather than congregations, which in his view, skews the representative nature of the results.

The CRC numbers 230 congregations; about 120 are from Quebec. All member-congregations were sent a survey, but some accessed the survey from the CRC website. Others made copies and distributed them to their different houses across the country, so that some congregations filled out more than one questionnaire, Stafford* reported.

The total number of respondents were 167: 26 were from Quebec. The others come from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

The survey methodology was not scientific, admitted Stafford. A CRC committee compiled the results and identified the major points on which there seemed to be a consensus. There was no representative sample However, the CRC said it stands behind the document as representative of the perceptions and experiences of its members."

*Sr. Louise Stafford, CRC spokesperson (she herself is a Daughter of St. Paul)