I had to go to Wellington last Tuesday afternoon. On the way home, rather than avoid the CBD and take the most direct route onto the Hutt motorway, I decided for no particular reason to go through town. I knew about the protest convoy that had rolled into town earlier that day but assumed it Read more
Fed up with groups from different schools fighting, students in Auckland have marched against inter-school violence. In June, a student was stabbed in the stomach and another left with concussion after a brawl involving up to 30 teens outside De La Salle College. Read more
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth Read more
History is repeating itself in Hong Kong. In 2003, after the SARS epidemic, attempts were made to introduce a national security law. Similarly, it is happening now as the coronavirus recedes. But this time we fear there will be no happy ending. It is difficult to find words that we have not already written to Read more
In New Zealand this Friday, young people are taking part in the worldwide college student protest about the slow pace of international action on climate change. The Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew, is supporting their efforts. “We all need to listen to young people about climate change,” he said. Dew acknowledged that opinions Read more
Both sides of the abortion debate demonstrated on Parliament’s front lawn on Wednesday. The Voice for Life prolife group laid out 13,285 pairs of baby booties on the lawn to represent the number of foetuses aborted in 2017. There was tension and some scuffles when a prochoice demonstrator started picking up handfuls of booties and Read more
A video showing a priest in his clerical cassock staging a protest at a police detention centre has gone viral. On June 19, Father Joseph Nguyễn Duy Tân, pastor of Thọ Hòa parish in Đồng Nai province, came to the police detention centre of Biên Hòa, 30km North of Sàigòn, to demand the immediate release Read more
Thirty or forty nuns, priests and faith leaders were among those arrested on Capitol Hill – the seat of the U.S. government – on Tuesday. They were calling on lawmakers to support bipartisan immigration legislation that makes permanent protections available to Dreamers. About 1.8 million Dreamers stand to lose the protection offered by the Obama-era Read more
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) protest movement against President Joseph Kabila is being led by the Catholic Church. Last weekend’s anti-government protests in the capital city of Kinshasa saw four people shot dead. The United Nations mission in Congo says 47 people were wounded and over 100 arrested in the Sunday protests. The casualties Read more
About 20 protesters blocked the entrance to the Australian high commission in Wellington on Monday to highlight the plight of refugees and asylum-seekers on Manus Island. “The purpose of the protest was to prevent anyone inside from leaving”, Peace Action Wellington spokeswoman Emma Cullen said. “We’re shutting them down for as long as we can Read more