For the 6100 children in state care – a record-high number – the current situation doesn’t offer a lot of hope. With an inquiry into historic abuse of children in state care around the corner, things are also likely to get a lot darker before the year’s out. Continue reading
New Zealand
Muslim women’s forum in Auckland to start open conversation
Thursday, April 19th, 2018A Muslim women’s forum in Auckland is creating a conversation with the wider community about employment, discrimination and housing. The forum has been organised after leaders within the Muslim community met last year and identified areas that needed improvement. Continue reading
Catholic tertiary education establishment board begins work
Monday, April 16th, 2018
Last year, the Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC) set up an establishment board to create a structure to provide Catholic tertiary education in New Zealand. They appointed Sir Brian Roche to be the chair. He is a former senior partner of PWC New Zealand and has been chief executive of the New Zealand Post Group. The Board members Read more
Pope Francis quotes NZ Bishops in his latest apostolic exhortation
Monday, April 16th, 2018
Pope Francis has included a quotation from a 30-year-old statement of the New Zealand Bishops in his latest Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate: on the call to holiness in today’s world. The quotation is taken from the New Zealand Bishops’s statement Healing Love – In support of Married People and Divorced Catholics, which the New Zealand bishops Read more
Briefing paper lists Hato Petera’s financial woes
Monday, April 16th, 2018
A briefing prepared by the ministry for Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis has highlighted some of the severe financial pressures facing Hato Petera College. Only $1,600 of its $200,000 operations grant was being spent on delivering the curriculum. 81 percent of the operations grant is spent on non-teaching personnel. The three office personnel consume 53 Read more
Chief censor says New Zealand needs to do more to tackle pornography problems
Monday, April 16th, 2018The chief censor says New Zealand needs to take a societal approach to tackling the pervasive effects of porn, including further regulation. Family First national director Bob McCoskrie is calling for an expert panel to better understand the breadth and nature of the health and social issues created by pornography, and how to tackle it. Continue reading
Human trafficking happening in NZ
Monday, April 16th, 2018At least three investigations probing the scale of human trafficking in New Zealand are underway as examples of restaurant workers being underpaid and sex workers being blackmailed come to light. Continue reading
Another mountain-top Easter Cross disappears
Thursday, April 12th, 2018
A cross the combined churches of Devonport on Auckland’s North Shore have been putting up Takarunga/Mt Victoria since 1992 was this year destroyed. They usually take the cross up the hill at 10 am on Good Friday, tie it into place, say prayers and sing hymns, and leave it there until 3 pm when some Read more
Stations of the Cross in story about migrant workers in Southland
Thursday, April 12th, 2018
Bill Morris, is a freelance film-maker, musician, writer, and photographer. Lottie Hedley is a freelance photographer. They are writing a story about Southland’s migrant communities for New Zealand Geographic. On Good Friday they joined a group taking part in the Stations of the Cross in Lumsden. This is the seventh time Filipino Catholics from throughout Southland Read more