After much debate, prayer and waiting, the site for the new Christchurch Catholic Cathedral has been announced. On Sunday, Christchurch diocese’s Catholic bishop, Michael Gielen, announced the decision to use the Barbados Street site. It will be on the same site which the beautiful Petrie-designed Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament occupied until the 2011 earthquake destroyed Read more
The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference has selected Whanganui Parish Priest Fr Craig Butler to attend a pre-synod world meeting of parish priests at the Vatican. Butler (pictured) will represent New Zealand’s Catholic priests at the gathering from 28 April to 2 May. He and 300 confreres from across the globe will share views and Read more
NZ Catholic Bishop Steve Lowe (pictured) is dismayed Easter trading – and the current ban on it – is up for change. He’s concerned about the ACT Party’s Easter Trading bill, which was drawn in a ballot just before Easter. “I guess when I read about this, I groaned. I thought: ‘Here we go again’. Read more
Even the name of the street disgraced Marylands School was on will be obliterated. A new name for the Christchurch street and its adjacent reserve is being sought. Nobody wants to remember Marylands Place and Marylands Reserve. Both are associated with abuse of children and young people. One in five of the boys who attended Read more
The Coalition Government’s pledge to introduce a Treaty Principles Bill is insupportable, opponents say. Describing the proposed Bill as “radical”, former National Party minister Chris Finlayson and political commentator Matthew Hooten say the bills should not have the National-led Government’s support. Former National Party attorney general and minister for Treaty negotiations under Sir John Key’s Read more
Rallying from a winter-long bout of respiratory problems, Pope Francis led some 30,000 people in Easter celebrations on Sunday and made a strong appeal for a cease-fire in Gaza and a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine. Francis presided over Easter Sunday Mass in a flower-decked St Peter’s Square and then delivered a heartfelt prayer Read more
The Catholic Church’s sexual ethic is anachronistic, says Salesian Father Ronaldo Zacharias. Its “established, dogmatic models of the theological approach to sexuality have become anachronistic.” Zacharias made the statement when speaking at a conference in Rome on sexuality and culture at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences. New sexual ethic Read more
When Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau heard Wellington’s mosques were seeking permission to broadcast the Call to Prayer, her response was offensive and irreligious. Whanau was on air at the time talking to The Platform’s Sean Plunkett. “The Platform has received quite a bit of feedback regarding the district plan vote Thursday on the broadcast of Read more
Three major Catholic aid agencies are urging Australia, Canada and New Zealand’s leaders to take immediate diplomatic action over the “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip The agencies working in the area are warning that starvation and famine threaten hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Catastrophic conditions in Gaza In a joint statement, the Read more
Recently in Christchurch, a 40m banner inscribed with 10,001 names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza formed a visual expression of Christian and community solidarity and a call for justice in peace. From pre-schoolers to pensioners, about 75 people joined for portions of a 36km walk on Saturday 9 March. The distance symbolically mirrors the Read more