A lack of respect for human life from conception to natural death and a lack of respect for the environment are both signs of a person claiming power over something that is not theirs to control, Pope Francis said. “They are the same indifference, the same selfishness, the same greed, the same pride, the same Read more
A claim of discrimination against a Catholic bishop by a Traveller family over their alleged treatment at a Holy Communion mass five years ago has been dismissed by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The Traveller family claimed Traveller women were excluded from the mass based on a dress code, even though other women who were Read more
India’s Police have traced a Catholic priest a fortnight after he went missing from his southern Indian parish. Father Santhosh Joshi, the parish priest of St. Anthony’s Church in Mysore Diocese, was reunited with his family on Aug. 29. The disappearance of the 37-year-old priest came to light on Aug. 21 when he was unavailable Read more
Health Minister Chris Hipkins said an investigation into claims that the church held meetings during Auckland’s level 3 restrictions is underway. But, one of the church leaders has denied those claims and says there have been no official prayer meetings held while restrictions were in place. Read more
The Bishop of San Rafael, Argentina, warned last week that he will impose canonical sanctions on priests who distribute Communion on the tongue during the coronavirus pandemic, in defiance of a diocesan directive permitting the distribution of Communion only in the hand. Bishop Eduardo Taussig announced June 13 that the Eucharist in his diocese was Read more
White New Zealanders are much more likely to get a new, more generous welfare payment introduced in response to Covid-19. The Government was warned that it was creating a “two-tier” welfare system which could potentially worsen racial inequality when it introduced the higher, tax-free, more accessible benefit in May. Read more
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled that a prohibition on federal funding for abortion will be excluded from spending bills next year if Democrats retain a majority in the House of Representatives, setting the state for the end of a 44-year-old bipartisan agreement on abortion funding. The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that Speaker Read more
Pope Francis held his weekly general audience in public for the first time in six months on Wednesday, smiling and chatting as he re-emerged from the constraints of the coronavius lockdown. The audience, at which the pope announced a day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon, was held in the San Damaso courtyard of the Read more
The Borrin Foundation has funded a report which is the first stage of a national, multi-year project led by 16 Māori legal researchers associated with Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence. The project and the report explore systemic change in the legal studies curriculum at Aotearoa New Zealand universities Read more
A trickle of rough sleepers returning to Auckland streets is not a sign of rising homelessness, NGOs say. However, they are bracing for a second wave of homelessness in the city as the recession starts to bite. Read more