The third Prevent People Trafficking Conference to be held in New Zealand took place in Porirua on June 5th and 6th. The conference was attended by representatives from ANZRATH (Aotearoa New Zealand Religious against Trafficking in Humans) ANZRATH is a group made up of New Zealand religious from a variety of congregations based in Auckland Sister Read more
The Chief of the New Zealand Army, Major General Dave Gawn MBE and Roman Catholic Bishop to the Military, Archbishop John Dew, along with the Catholic community gathered for the blessing and unveiling of a bronze Risen Christ. The bronze of the figure of the Risen Christ is a tribute to the Catholic military chaplains Read more
This week the people of Fiji have been bidding farewell to Archbishop Emeritus Petero Mataca. The reguregu (cultural expression of condolences) and veiqaravi (presentations) for Archbishop Petero began at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Lami on Tuesday afternoon. The Church was well prepared to host the hundreds of people, numerous delegations and dignitaries that came Read more
Archbishop Charles Balvo has called for an ethical economic reform. Balvo, who was recently the Pope’s representative [apostolic nuncio] in Wellington was addressing the United Nations Environmental Assembly. He said that while the desire to moderate the consumption of goods was commendable, it was necessary to abandon the model of “an uncontrolled consumerism, an immeasurable Read more
The Emeritus Archbishop of Suva Petero Mataca passed away at the Suva Private Hospital on Monday morning 30 June 2014 after a long illness. His successor, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong said “We thank him for his tireless commitment and in his own words we say: Sa dre ko Malolo. It is time to say Read more
The chief executive officer of New Zealand’s Catholic Education Office is predicting the start of next term could see pupils testing the limits of uniform and appearance rules. Brother Patrick Lynch said the recent court decision had ramifications for all schools when it came to student grooming. He said a law change may be needed Read more
The Catholic bishops of New Zealand have strongly urged the government of Sudan to remove the charge of apostasy from its penal code in order to align the code with its Constitution and international commitments. They did this in a letter to the Sudanese ambassador to New Zealand His Excellency Mr Abd Al Rahim Al Siddig Read more
Bishop Patrick Dunn and Bishop Ross Bay, the Catholic and Anglican bishops of Auckland New Zealand have issued a joint statement expressing their sadness at the extreme violence of the current insurgency of troops affiliated with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). “Acknowledging the religious and political complexity which characterises Iraqi Read more
Almost a third of all the marriages of New Zealand residents last year were remarriages. Of the 19,237 marriages 13,312 were first marriages, 5825 involved one or both parties being previously married. Last year, for every 1000 single people of a marriageable age, 22 got married. That’s less than a quarter of the 1971 peak Read more
The Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn says his hope is that every person, every parish, every community, every school in the Diocese will look outwards, beyond their own communities to ask ‘Where are the poor, where are people who are suffering in any way and how can I help?’ He was speaking on Pentecost Read more