Mrs Rangi Davis has resigned her membership of Te Rōpū Tautoko, the Catholic Church group created to liaise with the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions. Mrs Davis was newly appointed following the resignation of Bishop Charles Drennan last month. The chair of Te Read more
Hundreds of people have been identified by police as not having a drivers’ licence while attending church services in South Auckland. They have been offering the unlicensed drivers free courses instead of giving them tickets. Police say the campaign is necessary in order to reduce offending rates. More than a quarter of all court proceedings Read more
Pā Karaitiana Kingi, Marist priest, celebrated his 50th jubilee at Takitimu Marae Wairoa on Saturday 16th November. The venue was appropriate as Kingi was ordained at this marae by Bishop Snedden. It was the first time a Māori priest had been ordained on a marae. Various priests, religious Sisters and Brothers joined Fr Karaitiana and Read more
Next year New Zealanders will vote in a referendum on whether euthanasia should be legalised after a long-fought bill passed 69 to 51 in parliament on Wednesday. If endorsed by the public in a referendum the new law will allow those who are terminally ill to request assisted dying. Earlier in the day Stuff published an opinion Read more
The executive director of the Maori Council, Matthew Tukaki, has written to Pope Francis, calling for “an accounting of the trauma” the Vatican has caused and a repudiation of the doctrine of discovery. While not addressing the colonisation of Aotearoa specifically, popes have on several occasions repudiated and apologised for the doctrine of discovery going Read more
American and British publications, including Britain’s Daily Express and New York’s Daily News, have been chasing the story of sister Johanna Penn after the Carmelite sister turned amateur sleuth to recover two stolen statues. A large statue of the Sacred Heart along with a Little Infant of Prague statue, were seen being carried out of Read more
The Christchurch Catholic diocese has spent more than $15 million on several blocks of riverside Christchurch land. The purchases are likely to be the first stakes in a larger site for a complex which may include a new cathedral. Property and company records reveal the Catholic diocese has bought 10 vacant properties in the central city block bordered by Read more
The New Zealand Catholic bishops met Pope Francis for an 80-minute private audience in the Vatican on Monday 28 October during their Ad Limina visit to Rome. Pope Francis told the bishops to raise any topic and be free with their comments, said Bishop Stephen Lowe of Hamilton, secretary of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference. Read more
On Wednesday night, New Zealand’s Parliament voted by a 63 to 57 majority in favour of amending David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill to make its acceptance conditional on a binding referendum. With the acceptance of the amendment requiring a referendum, the Bill is likely to pass the third reading in November. However, it Read more
In 2015 some scientists in China performed a series of experiments involving 86 human embryos to see if they could make changes in a gene known as HBB, which causes the sometimes fatal blood disorder beta-thalassemia. Their work has been widely condemned by other scientists and watchdog groups, who argue the research is unsafe, premature Read more