New Zealand

Wellington offers extra parish formation programmes

Parish formation opportunities are at the fore of the Wellington Catholic archdiocese’s plans for 2024. Its Church Mission team offers a range of learning and development programmes. All focus on parish formation. In providing the programmes, the Archdiocesan Church Mission team responds to findings in the archdiocese’s 2017 synod and the 2021-24 global synod. Both Read more

New St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College about to open

St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College

The brand new St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College is about to open. From term one next year, Auckland’s new $80 million St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College will provide an education to hundreds of pupils. In July 2022, the Establishment Board of Trustees of St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College announced that Dean Wearmouth Read more

Analysis and Comment

The humanity of Jesus

Jesus

This month, we celebrate the sacred birth in an animal shelter. Why such a lowly place? Our views about status miss the message, and we must wrap this birth in splendour – angel song, an unusual star, three kings coming to bow before the child. The wrapping continues until Jesus is lost under layers of Read more

How Pope Francis’ unorthodox governing style is likely to impact the next conclave

Pope Francis

Pope Francis was supposed to be in Dubai this weekend to attend the UN climate change conference COP28. But his doctors forcefully insisted that he not make the trip. They told him it would be too risky for a man of his age who has been fighting a bronchial infection and shortness of breath for Read more

Hitting rock bottom

discrenment

Sometimes the darkness of the world, not to mention of our personal lives, can overwhelm us. When we hear of children killed unrepentantly, for example, human rights routinely denied, the cooking of the world locked in, and nations entrusting power to wilful children. How do you deal with such a dark vision? After the ABC’s Read more

The friendship between Catholics and Jews goes deeper than diplomacy

Catholics and Jews

Recently, we have been hearing Israeli and diaspora Jewish voices expressing disappointment at the Catholic Church’s reaction to the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7. The claim is that the pope has not sufficiently condemned the crimes of Hamas and, furthermore, that he has created a symmetry between Hamas and Israel in his comments. If that Read more

Call for national unity and to separate politics from treaty debate

National Unity

Calling for national unity, Māori King Tuheitia has issued a royal proclamation wanting a national hui to take place. King Tuheitia and the Waitangi National Trust say they want to hold the ‘unifying’ national discussion on the Treaty principles while the new coalition government prepares its own political debate on the issue. The royal proclamation Read more

  • Oddly

    • Women wearing veils at mass making a comeback

      There has been an increase in the number of women wearing veils during Mass in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan in recent years. Before the 1970s, head coverings were required for women during Mass, just as men were required to Read more

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  • Brazilian priest faces canonical proceedings for alleged schismatic acts

    canonical proceedings

    Ignoring restrictions on the use of the Latin Mass and making schismatic statements means a Brazilian priest faces canonical proceedings. The Archbishop of São Paulo, Cardinal Odilo Scherer, issued a decree on November 23 stripping Fr Fábio Fernandes of his public ministry and removing him as pastor from Our Lady of Sorrows Church in São Read more

  • Experts dismiss report AI could replace priests

    AI could replace priests

    Fr Alban McCoy OFMConv. is contesting the notion that AI could replace priests. McCoy, an editorial consultant at The Tablet, says the depth of the priestly role is beyond mere preaching. “To say that AI will replace priests suggests a very truncated, post-reformation and secularist view of what priests are and what they’re for, implying Read more

  • Catholic nuns take aim at Smith & Wesson’s assault rifles

    assault rifles

    Assault rifles, mass shootings and Catholic nuns aren’t usually linked – but in the US nuns are suing Smith & Wesson’s directors over its AR-15 assault rifle production. Their aim is to try to force the firearms manufacturer to stop making, marketing and selling assault-style rifles many US killers use in mass shootings. The nuns’ Read more

  • Climate activists disrupt Mass in Turin

    Extinction Rebellion

    Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion disrupted a Mass in Italy over the weekend, interrupting the ceremony at the Turin Cathedral. Demonstrators, citing Pope Francis’ environmental writings, took the floor during the service led by Archbishop Roberto Repole. Extinction Rebellion characterises itself as a nonpartisan movement. The group employs nonviolent methods to push for government action Read more

  • Climate change is a religious problem, COP28 told

    COP28

    In a message to COP28 (Conference of Parties), Pope Francis stressed religious leaders’ responsibility for caring for the planet. Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin read the message on Francis’s behalf on Sunday at the COP28 Faith Pavilion. He passed on Francis’s thanks to those in the new Pavilion. They included the Grand Imam of Read more