For the first time in its 39-years history, Monte Cecilia Housing Trust has had to stop taking new referrals from families. Other transitional housing providers are impacted as well says Monte Cecilia Trust chief executive Bernie Smith. Smith says there are cheaper ways than private rentals to accommodate people who are homeless, and taxpayers should Read more
Apologies from the Catholic Church followed the final submissions into historical abuse at Christchurch’s Marylands school. More than 30 witnesses gave evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care – many survivors, some experts and some senior members of the Catholic Church. In her closing statement, lawyer Sally McKechnie, who represented New Zealand’s Read more
A religious objection to the Covid-19 vaccine by police and defence force personnel in the HighCourt is part of a new challenge to the mandate. The basis of their objection is about the use of aborted foetal cells. The cells, collected decades ago, are used to grow cells that the vaccines are tested on. There Read more
Catholic Archbishop Paul Martin, the current Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Christchurch, accepts that survivors want the church to take responsibility for historical abuse cases and not just leave it to the particular order involved. He made the comment at the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care inquiry investigating historical abuse by the St Read more
New Zealand’s Catholic bishops and the new law on conversion therapy are in sync. The bishops’ submission to parliament supported the bill’s aims as being in line with the Catholic Social Teaching principles of human dignity and the common good. “Any harmful, coercive or abusive practice under any name is abhorrent to the Church and Read more
Vinnies charity shop in Picton has closed due to the spread of Omicron and the town’s increasing numbers of anti-vax mandate protesters, who are not wearing masks. As part of a nationwide anti-vax mandate convoy, protesters have occupied Nelson Square since last Monday. St Vincent de Paul Marlborough area president Alan Furness said the Vinnies Read more
Pasifika people are making up about half the cases in the current outbreak of the Omicron variant in New Zealand. And the Ministry of Health is urging the Pacific communities in New Zealand to receive their booster vaccination to protect themselves against the Omicron variant. Ministry of Health Pacific health director Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone said in Read more
Viewers of the Shine TV Mass last Sunday could be forgiven for being confused. A technical glitch meant last Sunday’s broadcast was for the third Sunday of Lent. “It was hard to know if they’d jumped forward or it was a repeat,” a correspondent opined to CathNews. Another described it as being like a replay Read more
A pregnant mother, who is expecting her fifth child and has been evicted from her home of six years, is finally breathing easily. Palmerston North mother Lisa Wesselson made a desperate plea for housing when the place she called home was suddenly not hers anymore. Toxic mould had become evident in the house her family Read more