Former Cabinet minister Chris Finlayson, a practicing Catholic, is also unsparing in his critiques of the Catholic Church. Finlayson says he has vigorously chided church leaders who try to intervene in politics. On one occasion the Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew, invited him to a picnic on Parliament’s lawn. Finlayson says Dew wanted to Read more
The report synthesising Ireland’s feedback on the synod on synodality is very clear. “Anyone with two eyes in their head can see that renewal in our church is clearly and urgently necessary. “The challenge is to find the good way of renewal,” says Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell. The Catholic Church in Ireland and across Read more
St Joseph’s Home of Compassion elder care facility will close in four months. Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy labels the closure as “catastrophic.” Guppy said he attended a packed meeting of family members at the home’s chapel on Wednesday night. “It was a bolt from the blue. “People were obviously sad and wondering what was Read more
Recently Britney Spears made a stir in Catholic circles when she told her Instagram followers that she had wanted to get married in a Catholic church in Los Angeles but had been turned away. Britney Spears, who has since had her wedding to longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari in the backyard of her Beverly Hills mansion, Read more
As a Catholic, the horror of sexual abuse is not that the Church is being scapegoated by the media, it’s the horror that ordinary Catholics feel conned. The comments were made from Wales by Professor Thomas O’Loughlin in “Scapegoating: The Church’s fall from grace”, a Flashes of Insight conversation with Dr Joe Grayland, Dr James Read more
The jury is out. The collated data from the diocesan Synod responses have been published for all to read. After the New Zealand Catholic Bishop’s Conference has prepared the synthesis of syntheses, all will be posted to Rome. The can of worms has been opened. The reading is too serious to ignore. In amongst the Read more
The Vatican’s top body on life issues has caused a stir for suggesting that one of the church’s most influential and controversial magisterial documents, Humanae Vitae, is not covered by papal infallibility. Over the weekend, a tweet sent from the Pontifical Academy for Life’s official Twitter account suggested that St Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Read more
The Catholic Church’s group dealing with the Royal Commission into State and Faith-Based Care say it is studying a Cabinet paper released by Public Services Minister Chris Hipkins. Hipkins has plans to cut a 3000-strong waiting list of claimants of abuse in state care – such as children’s homes – by making “rapid payments”. Survivors Read more
It’s time to farewell Monte Cecilia’s outgoing CEO Bernie Smith. Smith told CathNew he is leaving on Wednesday. The Catholic housing trust has been flooded with messages since Smith announced his resignation last month. It’s clear he’ll be missed. Big time. Smith is modest about his involvement with the Trust. “Empowering the disempowered, housing the Read more
Should a hypothetical investigator from an alien race descend upon earth to study humanity, without any preconceptions or biases, here’s what I suspect would be the conclusion about the Catholic Church: At its core, it’s more a sociological than an ideological reality. That is to say, Catholicism is more a family than a political party. Read more