The Catholic Bishops of New Zealand have set aside a week in September for Social Justice Week. In 2016 it runs from 11-17 September. In 2015 the number of persons living in a country other than where they were born reached 244 million for the world as a whole, a 41 per cent increase compared to Read more
Stories of migrant workers being exploited, with some paid as little as $8 an hour, have been revealed in a new report from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand. Report author Cathy Bi said the story that struck her the most was of a girl who worked a shift at a restaurant, but was not paid because her Read more
A college and community leader from Harewood in Christchurch has been awarded the prestigious runner-up prize of this year’s Cochlear Graeme Clark Scholarship for Australia and New Zealand. Nineteen-year-old Lachlan Bartlett will benefit from the financial assistance from Cochlear to help fund his double degree of law and criminal justice at the University of Canterbury. Read more
New Zealand’s sceptic community says Mother Teresa wasn’t all she was cracked up to be. The late Catholic nun and missionary has been declared a saint, which requires a candidate to perform at least two miracles during their lifetime. Mark Honeychurch from the NZ Skeptics Society says the two supposed miracles that led the way Read more
The 2016 Church Tour will bring four legendary New Zealand songwriters, recording artists, and performers together on stage. In a unique concert collaboration, Sharon O’Neill, Shona Laing, Debbie Harwood and Hammond Gamble will visit environs of some of the country’s most beautiful churches and cathedrals. While all four artists have worked with each other previously Read more
When Kauri Noble, 13, found out one of his mates lived in a van with his sister and parents under a bridge at Wairoa river, Te Puna, he was so upset and moved that he told his mother Luana Noble that he wanted to do something to help. “He was shocked to learn that a Read more
The long running battle to save the 1936 Spanish-mission-style convent and hostel Euphrasie House has has come to an end. The building could be demolished by the end of the year. However, an adjoining building, St Mary’s Chapel, will be preserved and strengthen. The chapel was built for the Sisters of Our Lady of the Read more
New Zealand Marist priest Gerald Arbuckle, 30 August, was presented with the Maria Cunningham Lifetime Contribution Award in Sydney. “I am personally thrilled by the award; Catholic health and aged care ministries are unique”, Fr Arbuckle said in a phone conversation. “The award acknowledges the emphasis that I and so many others have been giving Read more
The first Sikh to run for a place on Hamilton’s city council has had his billboard defaced with the name Isis in black paint. Yugraj Singh Mahil is pictured on the billboard with another candidate Anna Casey-Cox. Both are first time candidates in the city’s east ward, standing as part of the Community Voice group. Read more
Officials have poured cold water over a Kiwi farmer’s concerns that New Zealand’s meat industry only caters to the Muslim religion. The majority of meat works in New Zealand are halal-certified and comply with strict Islamic guidelines, including that the beast must have its throat cut by a Muslim slaughterman in the name of Allah Read more