A foundation that provides university scholarships to indigenous students across Canada has severed its ties with a group of Victoria-based Catholic nuns by returning a $500,000 donation. The Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation announced this week that it had decided to give back the endowment, received in December 2017, to the Sisters of St Ann, Read more
An Auckland vicar is breathing a sigh of relief after an historic cross that was stolen from her church was returned in one piece. Reverend Helen Jacobi is thrilled after the brass cross, gifted to the church back in 1924, was returned to police after an offender brazenly took the piece in broad daylight. CCTV Read more
The Vatican has released a video of Pope Francis telling a group of bishops from Brazil this week that his mobility has improved. “I have been able to walk for three days,” the pope said with a wave on June 27 as he walked with the help of a cane across the library of the Read more
Former National MP Alfred Ngaro says MPs should be able to speak their minds on abortion after party leader Christopher Luxon effectively gagged his caucus airing views on the Roe v Wade decision. National’s socially conservative MPs have gone to ground after MP Simon O’Connor was forced to take down social media posts which leader Read more
More than 100,000 people turned out on June 26 for Spain’s march for life in Madrid and to protest proposed changes to the country’s abortion law and other bills that violate human dignity. The pro-life institutions NEOS (the Assembly of Associations for Life, Liberty, and Dignity) and the Every Life Matters Platform organised the march Read more
About 1.2 million people in New Zealand experienced crime last year and people in a range of minority groups are more likely to be victimised. The Ministry of Justice’s fourth New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey, which reveals trends in crimes, showed about 29 percent of adults were victimised once or more during 2021. The Read more
Some young girls are still auctioned off into marriage for cows in South Sudan — one of the social challenges that activists had hoped to highlight during Pope Francis’ now-postponed visit. The price of a daughter, determined in negotiations between her father and would-be husband, is typically 50 to 100 cows, each worth up to Read more
Fertility companies and patients have been moving embryos and making contingency plans, anticipating that if Roe v Wade were overturned, abortion laws in some states could extend to protect eggs fertilised in laboratories. More than 2% of 3.7 million babies born in the US in 2019 were conceived through in vitro fertilisation, the latest federal Read more
Truancy is increasing. The rising cost of living is a major barrier keeping children from getting past school doors, says an Auckland principal. “We’re going to families whose kids aren’t attending, and asking: ‘What can we do to help your son or daughter to get back to school?’” said Wendy Esera, principal at Henderson Intermediate. Read more
Pope Francis has ordered the online publication of 170 volumes of its Jewish files from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, the Vatican announced on Thursday, amid renewed debate about the legacy of its World War II-era pope. The documentation contains 2,700 files of requests for Vatican help from Jewish groups and families, many Read more