The New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference (NZCBC) and its centre of bioethics, The Nathaniel Centre say that abortion is both a health and a justice issue and it should continue to be treated by the law as such. Their concern is that that making abortion purely a health issue would limit or remove the rights of the unborn Read more
The seismic strengthening and upgrade of Wellington’s St Mary of the Angels Church won two awards at the New Zealand Master Builders Commercial Projects Awards. Entered in the Heritage and Restoration category, the St Mary’s project took out both Gold and Category Winner medals. The awards were announced on Friday, at Sky City, Auckland. With Read more
Henry Kissinger, ‘historian and occasional practising statesman,’ has flagged concerns about the effect digital technology is having on humanity. He says “for all its achievements, it runs the risk of turning on itself as its impositions overwhelm its conveniences. “Beyond factual questions (“What is the temperature outside?”), questions about the nature of reality or the Read more
The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Paul Martin is reconsidering restoration of the earthquake-damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The diocese has about $30m from insurance but the total cost of a complete restoration is estimated to be in the region of $100 million. That leaves about $70m to be obtained from fund-raising. Martin has questioned the Read more
New Zealand’s Anglican Church voted this week to bless gay relationships. But it still won’t marry homosexual couples in church. The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia’s vote lets ministers bless gay couples in same-sex civil marriages or civil unions. The vote happened at the church’s biannual synod in New Plymouth this week. Read more
The number of people marrying in New Zealand is falling, says Statistics New Zealand. It says in 1992 the marriage rate was 18.3 couples per 1000 people eligible to marry. That includes those who formed a civil union from 2005. This rate dropped to 10.9 couples in 2017. Statistics New Zealand says the highest number Read more
Catholic bishops meeting in Port Moresby say economic development dependent upon fossil fuel-based energy, especially coal, presents an urgent ethical challenge. They say that for too long politicians have defended their lack of action by claiming that legislating for effective industrial change would be ‘political suicide’. The Assembly of the Federation of the Catholic Bishops Read more
Bishop Colin Campbell was the principal celebrant at last Thursday’s ordination of the new Bishop of Dunedin, Michael Dooley. There were 11 concelebrating bishops: Cardinal John Dew, Archbishop Martin Krebs, and bishops Patrick Dunn, Stephen Lowe, Paul Martin, Charles Drennan, Dennis Brown, Peter Cullinane, Owen Dolan, Basil Meeking and Stuart O’Connell. The ordination was attended Read more
Pope Francis has made an historic decision to appoint women to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. They are the first females members and the first non-clerics to be appointed to the Congregation. The three women appointed are: Linda Ghisoni, who is a professor of canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University and an Read more
The head of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into historical abuse in state care has suggested churches could launch their own internal investigation. In an interview with Mike Wesley-Smith on The Nation, Sir Anand Satyanand said he discussed the matter with the country’s senior Anglican and Catholic bishops meeting together recently in Wellington. “I raised Read more