Christchurch city councillors have waived a development $150,617 fee for a new Catholic school. Council staff had recommended the church’s remission application be declined. St Paul’s School on Gayhurst Rd in Dallington was red-zoned after the earthquakes and subsequently sold to the Crown. The diocese decided to merge the school with Our Lady of Fatima in Read more
On Wednesday Pope Francis was warning that to ignore the poor is to despise God and that the Lord’s mercy for us is tightly connected to our own mercy for others. His warning came in the same week that New Zealand was featured in one of United Kingdom’s national newspapers in a story about the New Zealand Read more
New Zealand-born evangelist and creationist Ray Comfort has announced he is planning to feed 5000 atheists attending the the Reason Rally. “We are hoping to feed 5,000 — it’s been done before,” he said. Comfort will be handing out $25,000 worth of Subway gift cards, alongside a copy of his book, Why Pigs Will Fly Before Read more
Churches are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to comply with a new crackdown on charities’ financial reporting standards. Charities who spend more than $1m per year are being forced to open up their books, in some cases for the first time, under new laws which came into effect this month. The Charities Service say the new Read more
Pupils of Ōtorohanga College have filled “a vacuum in our history curriculum” in respect of the New Zealand Land Wars of the 19th century. They have proposed a national day of remembrance for the New Zealand Wars. Last year College students gathered around 12,000 signatures in support of a New Zealand Wars Day and travelled Read more
More than 2000 Catholic Bibles are being given away to people in need throughout New Zealand and the number is expected to grow. Catholic churches around the nation have supported the Bible Society’s Poverty and Justice Buy One / Gift One campaign. In many cases parishes have been working with organisations such as Apostleship of the Read more
The Catholic community celebrated Catholic Schools Day 2016 on Monday 16 May. The theme of Catholic Schools Day 2016 is “Extending Horizons of Hope, Changing Lives” Chief Executive of Catholic Schools, Paul Ferris, said, ahead of the annual celebration, that there is much to celebrate. “A network of schools across the country of 66,000 students Read more
Long-serving Marlborough councillor and farming identity Larry Pigou was a pragmatic visionary who lived by the motto “it was better to ask for forgiveness later, than ask for permission first,” his family say. Apart from three years as a boarder at St Patricks College, Silverstream in Wellington, Mr Pigou spent all his life committed to his family, the sheep and Read more
What would you do if you had only months left to live? It’s a question being put to residents of Auckland’s North Shore as part of Hospice Awareness Week. Hospice North Shore is putting blackboards up across the area inviting locals to share what they would do if they had just months to live, with Read more
Six South Canterbury Catholic schools will make up the new community of learning. The community of learning is expected to lead to a more collaborative approach between the region’s Catholic schools. The schools involved are Roncalli College, Sacred Heart School, St Josephs’ School Pleasant Point, St Josephs’ School Timaru, St Josephs’ School Temuka, and St Read more