Cardinal Dew offers church facilities for vaccine rollout

President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishop’s Conference and Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew has offered Catholic churches and church facilities to the Government for Covid vaccination centres.

Dew made the offer at a meeting in Auckland between Church leaders of some of the country’s major Christian faiths and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

As well as offering Church facilities, Dew spoke about the importance of vaccinations for the common good.

The meeting took place on Thursday, the week before the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care is to hear from several church leaders in response to survivor claims of sexual abuse.

Dew is one of those appearing in front of the Commission.

There is no comment on whether the Prime Minister accepted the Cardinal’s offer.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss housing, poverty and the Covid-19 pandemic response including vaccination.

Those at the meeting included Anglican Archbishop Philip Richardson, Baptist Pastor Charles Hewett, Catholic Archbishop Cardinal John Dew, Methodist Church Vice-president Rev Etuini Talakai, Salvation Army Commissioner Mark Campbell and the Rev Dr Richard Waugh of the National Church Leaders Aotearoa New Zealand.

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Housing Minister Megan Woods also attended, along with departmental officials.

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News category: New Zealand, News Shorts.

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