New Zealand

NZers have a way to go with acceptance of diversity Comments 0

“Following March 15 we have had a little time to take a breath,” says the child and adolescent psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder. “A chance to look at some of the ways we need to remember and be remembered. “It is a line in the sand: This our baseline. The only way from here is up.” Elder Read more

Israel Folau finds fault with the Catholic Church Comments 0

folau

Israel Folau has attacked the Catholic Church because Catholics do not read the Bible. Folau is a rugby player who is fullback for the New South Wales Waratahs and Australia’s national team the Wallabies. Last Wednesday in an Instagram post, Folau suggested homosexuals and other groups – including drunks and atheists – were destined for Read more

Analysis and Comment

Notre Dame a picture of the Church’s collapse Comments 0

As fire devastates the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the building is as much a symbol of the recent history of the Catholic Church in Europe as it once was a symbol of the Church’s power and cultural supremacy. The church had been in disrepair for decades. Calls for its restoration went mostly ignored Read more

The elephant in the room: The clergy Comments 0

clergy

“It seems the younger priests emerging from seminaries, here and elsewhere, are getting better (or worse!) at demanding full allegiance from the laity,” said an email I received this week. Last Saturday the Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale, preached about his woes – and sufferings – as a diocesan bishop at the first profession of Read more

Let the sinless organisation cast the first stone Comments 0

sinless

A little less hysteria and a lot better collective memory would help us pope-watchers settle down. The Catholic Church – and the Pope – don’t have a nasty history on their own. Over much of the world, the concept of children’s rights is still non-existent, and child prostitution and slavery is a fact of everyday Read more

Untimely meditation from Emeritus Pope Benedict Comments 0

Emeritus Pope Benedict

On the evening of April 10, six weeks after the conclusion of the Vatican’s summit on the sex-abuse crisis, the Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, made known his thoughts on the genesis of that crisis in a five-thousand-plus-word essay sent to a periodical for Bavarian priests, quickly translated into English, and then diffused online by Catholic Read more

Notre Dame a picture of the Church’s collapse Comments 0

As fire devastates the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the building is as much a symbol of the recent history of the Catholic Church in Europe as it once was a symbol of the Church’s power and cultural supremacy. The church had been in disrepair for decades. Calls for its restoration went mostly ignored Read more

  • Oddly

  • Why did Twitter remove Mother Teresa abortion quote?

    A tweet containing a Mother Teresa quote, “Abortion is profoundly anti-woman. Three-quarters of its victims are women: Half the babies and all the mothers.” was removed immediately. The graphic purportedly violated Twitter’s “health and pharmaceutical products and services policy.” Read more

  • World

  • Sexual freedom of 1960s to blame for abuse crisis says ex-pope Comments 0

    The Pope emeritus, Benedict XVI, has published a 6,000-word essay blaming clerical sex abuse on the “all-out sexual freedom” of the 1960s. Cultural and historical change have led to a “dissolution” of morality in Catholicism, he claims. As an example, he says despite allegations of clerical sex abuse of children dating back to decades before Read more

  • Political far right campaigner says Pope Francis is the enemy Comments 0

    Political far right campaigner Steve Bannon, who is Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, has attacked Pope Francis over his anti-populism stance. Ramping up his message ahead of the European elections, Bannon said Francis should stay out of politics. “He’s the administrator of the church, and he’s also a politician. This is the problem,” Bannon – Read more

  • Nuns too – sexually abusing minors could be next scandal Comments 0

    Nuns are also guilty of sexually abusing minors, say survivors. Women who were sexually abused by nuns say while the abuse of boys by priests is being widely documented, their trauma is being overlooked. “It’s a spiritual rape, it really is,” one says. “It steals your faith. I envy people who have faith.” “Nuns kind Read more

  • Pope Francis kisses feet of South Sudan’s leaders in bid for peace Comments 0

    Pope Francis knelt to kiss the feet of South Sudan’s previously warring leaders urging them to respect the armistice they signed and to commit to forming a unified government next month. “I am asking you as a brother to stay in peace. I am asking you with my heart, let us go forward. There will Read more

  • Surgeon’s view of Christ’s cause of death Comments 0

    A Catholic surgeon’s view of Christ’s cause of death says he probably died from excessive blood loss. “Christ emptied himself,” Dr. Timothy Millea said in a talk at his Catholic parish . “As a surgeon, two words that make our hair stand on end are ‘bleeding out’,” he said. “If you can’t stop it, you Read more