The government is seeking to tighten controls on the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. Besides insisting on a firm 2023 deadline to wind up the investigation, the government has told the Abuse in Care Commission that they may not investigate modern care providers and post-1999 cases of abuse. In addition, the Commission’s budget blow Read more
Same-sex adoption, religious freedoms and child-abuse petitions are before Parliament at the moment. Reforming law in relation to hate speech offences is also on the agenda. If the hate speech law passes, offenders will face a larger maximum sentence than if they were found guilty of rioting, assaulting a child or providing explosives to commit Read more
At an April 8-10 online symposium with religious representatives from around the world, Pope Francis expressed his hope that religions, together, can fight the profound evil of child abuse. After decades of child sexual abuse scandals the Church is ready to share its successes — and failures — with other religious and lay institutions. Francis’ Read more
Everyone deserves access to basic hygiene. With 41,600 Kiwis not knowing where they will sleep tonight, and many not having access to a shower or laundry services demand for Orange Sky services has doubled. And, it needs more volunteers. Orange Sky, offers a mobile laundry and hot shower service working on the streets and in Read more
A tiny earthquake-prone church, Father Garin’s chapel in Nelson’s Wakapuaka Cemetery will be restored – but it’s a long-term project, the Catholic Church says. The building is listed as a category one historic place, with “special or outstanding historical or cultural significance or value.” Garin arrived in Nelson in 1850 and worked for nearly 40 Read more
Politicians have voted for a new law allowing three days’ bereavement leave where pregnancies end because of miscarriage or stillbirth, but not for women suffering post-abortion grief. Politicians have rejected calls for the leave to be extended to allow support for these women. “We absolutely support this bill but requested that it be extended to Read more
Australia and New Zealand have raised deep concerns about human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in China. Citing “the growing number of credible reports” of severe violations, both countries’ foreign ministers say the abuses are occurring in the Xinjiang region. The violations include “restrictions on freedom of religion, mass surveillance, large-scale extra-judicial detentions, as well Read more
Abuse survivors are asking for an independent redress agency for both state and faith-based abuse to be set up immediately. The Royal Commission into Abuse in Care should recommend the government establish such an agency they say. While the Anglican Church told the Royal Commission it is open to the idea, its bishop of Christchurch Read more
Survivor groups are not hopeful that the Royal Commission into the Abuse in Care will bring around change in churches. A spokesperson for the Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-Based Institutions, Liz Tonks, told RNZ that “victim-survivors were not hopeful because their experiences of churches is they have not been able to trust them Read more
A court hearing over state-integrated schools being left out of a $396-million funding package for upgrading state school properties has been delayed for several weeks, reports NZ Catholic. The funding package was announced in late 2019 but applied only to state schools. Last year, state-integrated schools’ proprietors filed papers in the High Court seeking a Read more