New Zealand

Don’t rush housing legislation through says Caritas Comments 0

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A bill to introduce changes to the social housing sector announced in Budget 2013 passed its first reading in Parliament last Friday. The Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment Bill) allows private sector groups to be allowed to replace Housing New Zealand as providers of social housing. However, Catholic social justice agency Read more

Little in the Budget that shows real commitment to change Comments 0

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The Budget shows a slow and steady economic recovery, but that should not be the extent of our ambition. We need more urgent attention given to poverty and recovery of social wellbeing, says the Auckland Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. While the Government is moving towards implementation of some recommendations of the advisory group Read more

Pacific

Catholics and Salvation Army agree: NZ Pacificans ‘hardest hit’ by recession Comments 0

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More government action is needed to address high unemployment and a widening income gap for Pacific people according to a Salvation Army report, “More Than Churches, Rugby and Festivals”. The report claims Pacific people now have the highest unemployment, the lowest incomes and a widening income gap that could mean they’re left behind when the economy Read more

Senior Methodist ministers will not stand in elections Comments 0

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The Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma will not have any of its senior members standing for the 2014 general elections. Confirming this, church general secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra said despite their intentions not to participate in the elections, they would still be part of the country’s political agenda. Mr Nawadra said their main aim Read more

Opinion

The Church and its message Comments 0

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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ve commented once or twice or 429 times about how the Catholic Church around the world, and in Australia and New Zealand in particular, often fails to adequately communicate the message Read more

Why the world doesn’t take Catholicism seriously Comments 3

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For years I’ve been immersed in Catholic media and the ongoing conversation within the Church of how to carry on as the Church. And, of course, in the West, at the heart of this conversation is the fact that within Read more

Catholic schools join proposed boycott of shops selling legal highs Comments 0

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St Peter’s College and Hato Paora College have joined other 9 other schools in the Manawatu in proposing a blanket boycott of all legal-high retailers throughout the wider Manawatu region. Their support has added weight to a Palmerston North mother’s campaign to stop retailers in the Manawatu from selling legal highs. Esther McLean has proposed Read more

  • Features

  • Renewing the Irish church from within

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    I entered the seminary in Dublin in October 1962, just one week before the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The winter of 1962-63 was one of the bleakest in decades, and our seminary was a very cold place in more ways than one. My memory of the seminary is of a building and a Read more

  • Priests and alcoholism

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    Every week or so, Father Ray toted a suitcase past the rectory offices. “Dry cleaning,” he’d say. “Liquor bottles,” feared both the pastor and Mary Catherine Meek, who worked in the suburban Chicago parish. People caught whiffs of alcohol on Father Ray (not his real name) at Mass. He had undergone treatment for alcoholism before Read more

  • World News

  • Pope Francis calls for global financial reform Comments 0

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    In his first address on the world economy, Pope Francis has called for global financial reform that respects human dignity, helps the poor and promotes the common good. “Money has to serve, not to rule,” he told a group of diplomats. He called for ethical financial reform that would “benefit everyone” and for the world Read more

  • US Christian and pro-life groups targeted by IRS Comments 2

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    Several Christian and pro-life groups in the United States have alleged they were unlawfully targeted by the Inland Revenue Service in an apparent effort to curtail their activities. One of them, the Christian pro-life group Cherish Life Ministries, said it was told by an IRS agent that the organisation did not qualify for non-profit status Read more

  • Syriac patriarch blames West for mess in Syria Comments 0

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    The patriarch of Syria’s Catholics has said Western nations are responsible for the carnage in Syria, where the morale of Christians is “very, very low”. Syriac Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan said the present situation in Syria is the result of Western nations carrying out a geopolitical strategy “to split Syria and other countries” in Read more

  • Archbishop: Church working to protect whistleblowers Comments 0

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    Giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse in Victoria, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne has said the Catholic Church could do better to protect whistleblowers raising concerns about paedophile behaviour at its institutions. He said the Church was working to improve its processes to help whistleblowers. “I always think there’s room for Read more

  • Catholic blood used in controversial art works Comments 0

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    A controversial Russian artist is using blood donated by Catholics in politically motivated art works being exhibited in Northern Ireland. In Andrei Molodkin’s “Catholic Blood” exhibition, freshly donated human blood from a pharmaceutical refrigerator is pumped through a replica of the rose window adorning the façade of the British Houses of Parliament. In an adjoining Read more