New Zealand

Disconnected or no-religion Catholics – an opportunity

Monday, March 18th, 2024
Disconnected or no religion Catholics

Food for Faith podcast producer Fr John O’Connor is about to tackle a new opportunity presented by disconnected or no-religion Catholics. He’s starting by taking a sabbatical and collecting food for his faith. After more than a decade of providing written and audio reflections for the popular Food for Faith podcast, the Christchurch priest (pictured) Read more

Papal Nuncio Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa back in Rome

Monday, March 18th, 2024
Papal nuncio

New Zealand’s Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, has returned to Rome. The archbishop left the country on Saturday and has arrived safely after a “smooth” journey, the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference says. Rugambwa (pictured) is recovering from a stroke he suffered in Wellington last October. He will continue his rehabilitation at a Catholic facility in Read more

Gaza humanitarian crisis – Government urged to take action

Monday, March 18th, 2024
Gaza humanitarian crisis

Three major Catholic aid agencies are urging Australia, Canada and New Zealand’s leaders to take immediate diplomatic action over the “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip The agencies working in the area are warning that starvation and famine threaten hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Catastrophic conditions in Gaza In a joint statement, the Read more

House building: NZ needs 125,000 homes in 5 years to meet high migration

Monday, March 18th, 2024

Westpac Bank says New Zealand will need to ramp up its house building machine to about 125,000 homes over the next five years if it hopes to keep up with rampant migration and mitigate the post-pandemic slowdown. Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said while some parts of the country were catching up with longer-term underbuilding Read more

Amazon cloud pays barely $1m tax on $391m revenues

Monday, March 18th, 2024

The Government has set in place a new “cloud first” policy requiring all its agencies to store their information on the cloud. “Do not invest in on-premise ICT infrastructure unless information meets specific criteria,” chief executives are told. Ideally, it says, information classified as “restricted” should be hosted in a New Zealand-based data centre, where Read more

VSA volunteers provide prisoners with opportunities

Thursday, March 14th, 2024
VSA

New Zealand Volunteer Services Abroad (VSA) workers are volunteering to support training opportunities for detainees as they reintegrate into society. The husband and wife team Rob Wait and Katy Buess are putting their Invercargill-based business on hold in April to return to Vanuatu and continue their VSA work. Skills for life From leading building and Read more

Catholic advertising on buses makes some uncomfortable

Thursday, March 14th, 2024
religious advertising

Catholic advertising on the back of Nelson’s new eBuses has left some residents feeling “uncomfortable”. Deputy mayor, Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, says a few people had contacted councillors about advertising which depicts a Divine Mercy image of Jesus. “Having religious advertising on buses is not something that everyone is comfortable with” he says. O’Neill-Stevens doesn’t think the Read more

Solidarity with 10,001 Palestinian children killed in Gaza

Thursday, March 14th, 2024
Palestinian children

Recently in Christchurch, a 40m banner inscribed with 10,001 names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza formed a visual expression of Christian and community solidarity and a call for justice in peace. From pre-schoolers to pensioners, about 75 people joined for portions of a 36km walk on Saturday 9 March. The distance symbolically mirrors the Read more

Nick Wilson of Palmerston North new Council for Young People Chair

Thursday, March 14th, 2024

Nick Wilson of Palmerston North is the new chair of the Council for Young People of the Catholic bishops of Aotearoa New Zealand. Nick is the Diocesan Young Catholics Team Leader for the Diocese of Palmerston North. He has had a career in education in New Zealand and overseas. He works as the Manawatū Catholic Read more

New migrants lead NZ for childhood vaccination

Thursday, March 14th, 2024

One in four New Zealanders has been born overseas and new migrants are ahead of other Kiwis when it comes to vaccinating their babies. Migrant families are more likely than other New Zealanders to vaccinate their babies on time, according to new University of Auckland research. The study found children of recent migrants, defined as Read more