A New Zealand sexual abuse survivor, Darryl Smith, has gone to the Vatican to take part in survivor meetings, coinciding with a gathering of the leaders of bishops’ conferences from around the world. Smith is hopeful of an audience with Pope Francis while in Rome. With him he is carrying a letter of introduction from Read more
Critics say a centuries-old law that exempts charitable companies from paying tax need to be changed. As Checkpoint‘s Nita Blake-Persen reports, you might be surprised how many products in your pantry are made by companies which don’t have to pay tax. Continue read
Whittaker’s have launched pink and blue chocolate bars as a fundraiser for Plunket. But critics said it reinforces gender binary stereotypes. There have been a variety of reactions. Here are some of them.
During the recent summer holiday, eight students and two teachers from St Patrick’s College Wellington went on a two-week school trip to visit the Marist mission in Ranong, Thailand. The purpose of this trip was to experience what life is like for Burmese migrants, see Marist faith in action and teach English to the students attending Read more
New Zealand-born author Father Gerald Arbuckle’s most recent book, Loneliness Insights for Healing in a Fragmented World has been included by the Spirituality and Practice website among the 50 best spiritual books of 2018. Arbuckle is noted scholar in both theology and anthropology. He is the author of many books, the most recent being: Laughing with God: Humor, Read more
Cardinal John Dew, the Archbishop of Wellington, has directed every parish in the archdiocese to review its stock of churches and presbyteries. The review will identify how many churches the parish needs to cater for its Mass count, taking into account the availability of priests and lay pastoral leaders, and the ideal location of the Read more
A $4 million performing arts centre being built at Rotorua’s John Paul College will rival similar centres around the country and fill a void left by the closure of the Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre. Principal Patrick Walsh said, once completed, the state-of-the-art facility would boast a dance studio, music suite, a drama suite Read more
A charity traditionally associated with disaster relief is helping a south Auckland community with its crisis – food. From late 2018, the Rapid Relief Team (RRT) has provided Papakura police with emergency food boxes that contain enough food for a family of four to live on for 24 hours. Read more
“We are not going to rely exclusively on our Filipino Catholic immigrants. We are going to do the bloody work ourselves,”. said regional economic development minister Shane Jones a recent speech on unemployment. Given a chance to roll those comments back a few minutes later, Jones did the contrary, saying the Catholic Church had done Read more
In October last year, two Wairarapa Catholic churches were abruptly closed for some time after being deemed earthquake-prone. One of the churches is Martinborough’s St Anthony of Padua. The decision left the local Catholic community to sort out its immediate future including the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass and Carols celebration. The Martinborough Catholic community considered a Read more