Fr Chris Skinner SM of Auckland’s Marist Seminary has composed a new song, Super Supermarket Worker, a tribute to all the supermarket workers of Aotearoa New Zealand and particularly those he has met as the “designated shopper” for the eight-strong seminary community these long Lockdown weeks. “I was really conscious of all the supermarket workers Read more
Last Wednesday Maria Teresa Baruffi, who lives in the northern Italian town of Caravaggio with her family, received a surprising phone call while standing in line at the supermarket: It was Pope Francis, asking to speak to her son, Andrea. Several days prior, Andrea, who is 18, had sent a letter to Pope Francis to Read more
Cambodia’s government has been using the coronavirus pandemic as a cover to make arbitrary arrests of opposition political leaders and its critics, says a US-based human rights organization. The government has detained at least 30 people for spreading “fake news” since the start of the outbreak in the country in January, New York-based Human Rights Read more
The Vatican’s doctrinal congregation has asked the world’s bishops to report on how a landmark papal document acknowledging the right of all priests to say Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962 is being applied in their dioceses. Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), wrote to the Read more
Sr Mary Emerentiana, SMSM, died in Auckland on March 7. She was 92 years old. She served in many positions in the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary. She represented the Vatican at the World Council of Churches in Geneva in the 1990s. Read more in NZ Catholic
Saudi Arabia is abolishing the death penalty for people who committed crimes as minors, the state-backed Human Rights Commission (HRC) said in a statement Sunday. The decision was part of a royal decree, the statement said, and came two days after an announcement that public floggings would be banned. Anyone who received a death sentence Read more
Hato Pāora College student Manuhuia Bennett, 16, was part of a group of 100 descendants of Māori pioneers who last year marked 100 years since the Māori Battalion returned home from World War I with a street parade in Gisborne. Read more
The holy city of Mecca has been pictured completely deserted as Muslims celebrate Ramadan in isolation this year. The central courtyard of the Great Mosque of Mecca is open all year round so is often busy, particularly during Hajj, but strict lockdown measures in Saudi Arabia have left it completely empty. The holy month of Read more
The decimation of the Pacific’s tourism industry by Covid-19 could plunge thousands of people into poverty, according to a new assessment by the International Labour Organisation. Thousands of jobs in countries like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are dependent on visitor numbers, which have fallen to zero. Thousands of jobs have already been lost, with resorts Read more
A leading hospital in Philippine capital Manila is struggling to store unclaimed bodies of patients amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Journalist Arnold Clavio on April 11 posted on social media that bodies have been “piling up” in the hallway of a “certain hospital in Metro Manila.” Clavio did not disclose his source or the name of Read more