A lobby group fighting to keep its status as a registered charity says it operates the way it always has, so it shouldn’t lose its status. Family First is appealing a decision the Charities Registration Board made to de-register it in 2013. The group said its opposition to gay marriage was the reason Charities Services Read more
New Zealand
Refugee settlers grateful for safer lives and careers in NZ
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015Twenty-three-year-old Rez Ricardo was born a refugee. Her Kurdish family had fled Iraq for Pakistan in the hope of receiving aid from the United Nations. Ms Ricardo was born three years after her family left Iraq and spent most of her life, until the age of 6, living in Pakistani refugee camps. The law student Read more
PM corrects himself on refugee quota
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015At his post-Cabinet news conference, on Monday John Key said he had been wrong and the numbers were much lower. Mr Key had repeated the claim several times that thousands and thousands of refugees make it into the country, despite the annual refugee quota being just 750. He said many more came in under the Read more
Small school with big heart raises 12.3k for Nepal
Friday, June 19th, 2015
St Joseph’s Primary School in Fairlie may be small in size, but the school of 45 students has shown they are big of heart by raising $12,352.57 for Caritas’ ongoing emergency relief work in Nepal. Year 6 student Ben Pawsey came up with the idea of an art auction to raise money for Nepal because Read more
Catholics offer Muslims a blessed & holy Ramadan
Friday, June 19th, 2015
More than 40,000 New Zealand Muslims began the month of Ramadan with the new moon that occurred on Wednesday night. The New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Interfaith Relations, have written a letter of support addressed “our Muslim brothers and sisters” offering them “best wishes for a blessed and holy Ramadan.” “Catholics share with you a Read more
Pope’s encyclical calls for new relationship with the earth
Friday, June 19th, 2015
In a new encyclical, Pope Francis has acknowledged “very solid scientific consensus” that humans are causing climate change that is endangering the planet. In Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home, released on June 18, Francis urged the world to embark upon a revolutionary ethical rethink and change of heart in its relationship with Read more
- New Zealand Church awaits Pope’s encyclical on environmental justice
- Auckland Justice and Peace Commission makes submission on NZ climate change targets
- Dirty tricks campaign against Pope could be behind climate change letter leak
- US church welcomes Pope Francis’s ‘marvelous’ encyclical
- Francis’s encyclical is a step in the right direction, those outside the Church say
- Five striking things about Laudato Si
- Jeb Bush rebuffs Pope Francis’s climate encyclical while UK secular commentators welcome it
- Faith groups in Britain call for drastic carbon emission cuts ahead of Pope’s environment encyclical
- Pew survey shows 71 per cent of Catholics believe in global warming
- The last time conservatives dismissed a major encyclical, it ended terribly for them
Dr Lance O’Sullivan steps in to help Hato Petera College
Friday, June 19th, 2015Outspoken children’s health campaigner Dr Lance O’Sullivan is preparing to take “drastic action” at a troubled Auckland boarding school after learning of what he says are serious safety issues. Dr O’Sullivan, a Kaitaia GP who has been named New Zealander of the Year and Maori of the Year, claims Northcote’s Hato Petera College has failed Read more
Many homeless people in Auckland living in cars
Friday, June 19th, 2015Auckland City Mission homeless outreach worker Charlotte Ama counted about 30 people living in cars and vans when she took NZ Herald reporters on a guided tour of the old Tank Farm area on the waterfront last Monday night. At times, she says, there are up to 50. Reporter Simon Collins and photographer Jason Oxenham Read more
St Pat’s Wellington student puffing about Puffer jackets
Friday, June 19th, 2015St Patrick’s College Wellington student, Aiden Green, says the jacket rules at his school had suddenly changed this week. Although pupils were told at an assembly last Wednesday that plain black jackets without writing were acceptable, teachers stood by the gate on Tuesday morning and patrolled at lunchtime to confiscate any non-uniform jackets, he said. Read more
Napier’s new combined parish to sort out buildings
Tuesday, June 16th, 2015
Now that Napier’s three parishes have been combined decisions have to be made about the use of the buildings. The four lay staff and three priests, who previously worked within the three parishes of St Mary’s, St Patrick’s and St Thomas More, are presently working out of the unified parish’s temporary site at St Mary’s Read more