On Friday the New Zealand Catholic Bishops wrote to Pope Francis to encourage and support the Holy Father. President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop Patrick Dunn, wrote: “Our priests and our people, and we ourselves, appreciate greatly all that you are doing to highlight the Joy of the Gospel. “We are grateful Read more
The presence of the asylum seekers detention centre loomed large at the four-day Pacific Forum meeting in Nauru last week. There have been calls from human rights groups such as Amnesty International to close a facility it calls “a stain on the region.” Prior to the meeting, Amnesty released an open letter co-signed by 80 Read more
Bishop Patrick Dunn, the Catholic Bishop of Auckland and the proprietor of Hato Petera College believes that the cancellation of the College’s Integration Agreement is in the best interests of students. The Minister of Education Chris Hipkins and the Bishop have agreed that the College will close on 31 August 2018. In making the announcement Read more
Cardinal John Dew says the Catholic Church will follow up Pope Francis’ apology to victims of clerical abuse with “concrete actions” to ensure children are protected and perpetrators are held to account. Dew, the archbishop of Wellington New Zealand, was speaking to The Irish Times on the fringes of a pastoral conference on The Future Read more
Pope Francis has dismissed the accusations of a former Vatican ambassador that he covered up for ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Francis says an 11-page document of claims released by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò “speaks for itself”. Asked about the letter from in a press conference aboard the Aug. 26 flight back to Rome after his visit to Ireland, Francis Read more
The New Zealand Catholic Bishops welcome the letter this week to the People of God from Pope Francis asking forgiveness for the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults perpetrated by clergy and consecrated persons. As Pope Francis notes, these heinous crimes inflict deep wounds on the victims themselves and on their family members, and Read more
Former New New Zealand prime minister the Right Honourable Sir Bill English and his wife Dr Mary English made a submission to a parliamentary committee considering the End of Life Choice Bill last Thursday. Mary English has worked as a general practitioner for 28 years. She has a practice in the inner Wellington suburb of Kelburn. They Read more
A priest, celebrity chef, martial arts instructor, break-dancer, award-winning author, radio and tv show host, Father Leo Patalinghug, is a multi-talented man with a unique message. And it all centres around food and God’s love. Patalinghug will be sharing this message, complete with a live cooking demonstration at the Family Banquet conference organised by the Read more
Cardinal John Dew will be giving talks in the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly and in the Archdiocese of Dublin as part of a pastoral conference at the end of the month. He has been invited by the Irish archbishops to speak about the Wellington Archdiocese’s experience with its own Launch Out programme, established to Read more
Labour backbencher Louisa Wall, is looking at the possibility of drafting legislation that would impose a “duty of care” on media organisations. In June she told the Herald on Sunday she would like a “duty of care” clause added to the Bill of Rights Act, so people could be held accountable for their use of free Read more