Three years on from a terror attack on Christchurch’s Muslim community, the community is helping build understanding. Rather than Remembrance services, this year the Muslim community decided to mark the occasion differently. Whānau Trust spokesman Rashid Bin Omar said Islamic Awareness Week aimed to spread peace, unity and love as opposed to the attacker’s aim Read more
A Catholic doctor who was banned last year from offering “abortion pill reversal treatment” to women who wished to keep their babies is now permitted to offer the treatment. Dr Dermot Kearney, a hospital cardiologist and a past president of the UK’s Catholic Medical Association, was last year the subject of a complaint about his Read more
With queues at the border to Poland up to 15km long the Catholic Church is stepping up to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Among those providing support is the Catholic charity Caritas Australia, who is working directly with Caritas Ukraine and its local partner Caritas Spes. Funds to support the charity’s work in Ukraine have Read more
Churches are among the high risk places to avoid at present, say public health professor Nick Wilson and epidemiologist Michael Baker (pictured). As daily Omicron cases soar throughout the country, avoiding high risk places means steering clear of bars, restaurants, cafés, gyms, churches and protests. Retail shops, offices, lifts, stairwells, malls, community pools, public transport Read more
Wellington’s St Mary’s College is the second school adjacent to the parliamentary protest to close due to ongoing fears for its students’ and staff’s safety. The school will be closed until Tuesday 1 March. Wellington Girls’ College has also announced it will be shut until at least then, with the school citing an ‘increasingly volatile’ Read more
Apologies from the Catholic Church followed the final submissions into historical abuse at Christchurch’s Marylands school. More than 30 witnesses gave evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care – many survivors, some experts and some senior members of the Catholic Church. In her closing statement, lawyer Sally McKechnie, who represented New Zealand’s Read more
Vinnies charity shop in Picton has closed due to the spread of Omicron and the town’s increasing numbers of anti-vax mandate protesters, who are not wearing masks. As part of a nationwide anti-vax mandate convoy, protesters have occupied Nelson Square since last Monday. St Vincent de Paul Marlborough area president Alan Furness said the Vinnies Read more
Don’t forget Tonga just because it happened a while ago – this is the message of former All Black coach, Wayne Smith. “They’ve been absolutely hammered, a lot of them are homeless”, he told RNZ. The island kingdom was battered by a tsunami after an undersea volcanic eruption last month. Distribution of aid to Tonga Read more
SNAP Aotearoa New Zealand is calling for Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI to be prosecuted if evidence proves he obstructed clerical child abuse complaints when he was Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Christopher Longhurst, who coordinates Aotearoa New Zealand’s Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was commenting on the likelihood of Benedict’s knowledge of Read more
Caritas was prepared for an emergency in Tonga and is already on the ground offering assistance. Confirmation of the Catholic agency’s involvement comes from Caritas Director Julianne Hickey, and follows Saturday’s eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano. “Together (with Caritas Tonga) we have completed the pre-positioning of emergency supplies at three locations in Tonga Read more