Taupo’s St Patrick’s Catholic School Year 7 and 8 students stayed in cardboard boxes last Thursday night and fasted on Friday. Sponsored by friends and family, the students raised $2400 to go towards backpack bedrolls and sleeping bags and washing facilities for the homeless, and also for foodbanks in Taupō and Tūrangi. Read more
Simone Hivert, a 100-year-old French woman, is scheduled to reach the popular shrine of Santiago de Compostela, the alleged burial site of St. James the Apostle and an important pilgrimage destination since the 9th century, later this month. Hivert – described as “a most extraordinary pilgrim” is due to arrive at the shrine in northwestern Read more
Mavis Bridgeman was among 11 people who received New Plymouth Citizen’s Awards. She has cared for more than 250 foster children and still has one boy spending a week with her each month. Bridgeman has also supported Faith and Light, a faith-based group supporting those with intellectual disabilities, the Taranaki Disabilities Information Trust, the Open Read more
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday called on the Vatican to be “serious” in addressing religious persecution in China, on the heels of a visit in which Pope Francis did not meet him. Pompeo, an evangelical Protestant and staunch critic of China, in a radio interview drew an implicit contrast between Francis and Read more
This summer while cantoring during Mass, Margaret Hillman was overcome by traumatic flashbacks that caused her to have panic attacks while singing music by Catholic composer David Haas. Hillman’s flashbacks were triggered by a press release from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) that supported the reports that the advocacy group Into Read more
Wellington City Mission’s future community hub has received $10 million from the Government. The new building will have a community cafe, a social supermarket and 35 housing units designed to accommodate and care for people experiencing chronic homelessness. Read more
The accuser of Cardinal George Pell has denied bribery allegations regarding his complaint of abuse against the cardinal, after Italian media have reported the allegation that Cardinal Angelo Becciu might have wired money to Australia as a bribe during Pell’s trial. “My client denies any knowledge or receipt of any payments,” attorney Vivian Waller, who Read more
Anglican priest charged in connection with the historical sexual abuse allegations at Dilworth School has resigned from his position at a South Auckland church. Read more
Moves to reinterpret the very foundations of human rights have left a Vatican representative to the United Nations “deeply concerned”. In a statement Oct. 6, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said that the reinterpretation of human rights benefited the powerful at the expense of the weak. “The Read more
A Chinese bishop has resigned just weeks before the Vatican and Beijing are expected to renew a controversial agreement on appointments, saying he could not keep pace with changing times. Vincenzo Guo Xijin announced his resignation as auxiliary bishop at an evening mass in the eastern province of Fujian on Sunday, saying he did not Read more