New Zealand

Record wait for families needing housing Comments 0

housing

The number of people waiting for public housing has almost doubled in the last 18 months. Some of the fastest growth took place last year and, at the end of March, 11,067 eligible households are waiting for a place to live. The near-record high statistics were released on Monday by the Ministry for Social Development Read more

MP gets cross party support and a security escort Comments 0

security escort

Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is being accompanied by a security escort at all times following a series of death threats. The MP has seen a significant escalation in threats of violence following comments by ACT MP David Seymour, a source told Stuff. Ghahraman is an Iranian-Kiwi refugee, lucky to escape war and persecution as a Read more

Analysis and Comment

Inclusivity means accepting everyone’s views – even Israel Folau’s Comments 0

inclusivity

Something’s not quite right here. The 21st-century buzzwords are diversity and inclusivity, but they seem to be applied very selectively. It seems we’re in favour of diversity and inclusivity if we’re talking about race, colour, gender and sexual identity, the latter two of which keep spinning off into ever-new permutations. But puzzlingly, we’re only partially Read more

Rediscovering my faith is helping me cope with a chaotic world Comments 0

faith

The first time I went to church as an adult, I had been up all night drinking in a friend’s living room. Tumbling home as the morning mist enveloped the common near my flat, almost nothing was visible but the church spire on one corner. Going to bed seemed a let down: I had finished Read more

Priestly celibacy today Comments 0

celibacy

Celibacy in the priesthood is once again up for discussion. The diminished number of candidates for ordination and the abuse crisis have prodded the discussion, which seems mainly focused on the elimination of celibacy as a mandatory discipline for priests in the Western church. But a more foundational concern, in my estimation, needs our reflection Read more

What makes a sermon difficult to listen to Comments 0

I am closing in on my forty-third birthday and have been a churchgoer all my life. A bit of simple math shows that I’ve probably listened to somewhere around 4,000 sermons over the course of my life (which undoubtedly means I should have far more knowledge of the Bible than I do and should be Read more

The lid is coming off the can of nuclear waste Comments 0

nuclear waste

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has recently toured the South Pacific to discuss climate change. In Fiji last week, he told a crowd about “a kind of coffin” built by the US in the Marshall Islands to house the deadly radioactive debris from the 1980s. The “coffin” is the product of a belated American response to Read more

  • World

  • Pope upset with some bishops delaying marriage annulment reform Comments 0

    Some bishops’ failure to fully implement the Church’s revised marriage annulment procedures has drawn a rebuke from the pope. “I am saddened to note that the reform, after more than four years, remains far from being applied in most Italian dioceses,” Pope Francis, the bishop of Rome, told other members of the Italian bishops’ conference Read more

  • Cardinal urges Christian nations: resist large-scale Muslim immigration Comments 0

    Resisting large-scale Muslim immigration is a responsible exercise of one’s patriotism, Cardinal Raymond Burke told a pro-life, pro-family conference last week. While the church must be generous to “individuals that are not able to find a way of living in their own country,” this is not the case for many Muslim migrants “who are opportunists,” Read more

  • Washington’s new archbishop pledges new era of openness Comments 0

    At his installation mass as the seventh Archbishop of Washington, Wilton Gregory pledged a new era of openness in the Washington, DC diocese. “I want to be a welcoming shepherd who laughs with you whenever we can, who cries with you whenever we must, and who honestly confesses his faults and failings before you when Read more

  • French bishops to meet children of priests Comments 0

    Three children of priests, representing the Children of Silence association, will meet the French bishops at the Bishops Conference of France next month. The meeting, which is a first in France, follows an initial meeting between Children of Silence president Anne-Marie Jarzac (67) and two Bishops’ Conference members. “We told them that we needed to Read more

  • Court orders life support to resume in right-to-die case Comments 0

    Doctors have been ordered to resume life support for a quadriplegic Frenchman whose case is central to the right-to-die debate in France. The doctors had stopped the nutrition and hydration Vincent Lambert receives, following an earlier judicial ruling in accordance with the wishes of his wife and other relatives. The new order to resume life Read more