Neighbours Day Aotearoa is an annual community-led campaign. This year be the 10th year it has been celebrated. Its purpose is to encourage everyone around New Zealand to make a special effort to connect with their neighbours. It will be marked by hundreds of event large and small that will take place between 22nd – Read more
New Zealand
Bishop confident Pope wants action
Monday, March 4th, 2019
Michael Dooley, the Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, says a Vatican conference on sexual abuse is just ”the beginning”, despite the lack of concrete action. Last week he told the Otago Daily Times Insight the international gathering of bishops was about getting ”attitudes right”. Pope Francis had indicated new guidelines would follow on the response to Read more
Tauranga’s church may relocate
Monday, March 4th, 2019
St Mary Immaculate Church in Tauranga’s CBD is losing its bell tower, and the site may even be sold altogether. Parish priest Father Mark Field says the bell tower meets only 20 per cent of the modern earthquake code, so it needs to be removed. The newer part of St Mary’s is continuing to operate Read more
30,000 sign petition opposing the teaching of ‘gender diversity’
Monday, March 4th, 2019
More than 30,000 people have signed a Parliamentary petition asking the Ministry of Education to scrap references to gender diversity in the New Zealand teaching curriculum. Stop transgender teaching in New Zealand schools was published on January 29 and has garnered 31,190 signatures as of last Wednesday evening. The petition request: That the House of Representatives urge Read more
Vatican astronomer on national tour of NZ
Monday, March 4th, 2019Internationally acclaimed astronomer and Director of the Vatican Observatory, Br Guy Consolmagno SJ, will visit New Zealand this April with the support of the Catholic Enquiry Centre. Consolmagno S.J., a leading American research astronomer, is also an internationally renowned speaker, Jesuit and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Continue reading
Kiwis spent equivalent of $648 each on gambling
Monday, March 4th, 2019New Zealanders spent $2.4 billion on gambling last year – around $648 for every person in the country That was $49m higher than last year, but once inflation and population growth were taken into account it was a slight decrease on the previous financial year. Continue reading
24th Pākaitore protest anniversary
Monday, March 4th, 2019Hundreds of people gathered at Pākaitore in Whanganui to mark 24 years since the iwi occupied the land for 79 days. Against a backdrop of the Whanganui River, kōhanga reo children smiled and waved as they marched around the pā, also known as Moutoa Gardens. Continue reading
Religion just as important as it always was
Thursday, February 28th, 2019
Juliet Chevalier-Watts is challenging the view that New Zealand is becoming more secular. She says religious belief appears to be just as important to society as it’s always been. Chevalier-Watts is a University of Waikato senior law lecturer who is a charity law specialist and is in completing a PhD in which she reviews religion Read more
New director for NZ’s national liturgy office
Thursday, February 28th, 2019
The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC) announced this week the appointment of Father John O’Connor as acting director of the Catholic Church’s national liturgy office. Fr John is a priest of the diocese of Christchurch, ordained in 1985. While serving in parishes around the diocese until recently, he has also completed an MA in Read more
Network of Survivors of Abuse disappointed by Vatican conference
Thursday, February 28th, 2019
Dr Murray Heasley says the outcome of the Vatican conference on child protection and the clerical sexual abuse crisis was a major let-down for the survivors. Heasley is an Auckland-based spokesperson for the Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based Institutions and their Supporters. He was speaking from Rome to the Otago Daily Times’ Insight. Read more