News Shorts

Landfills becoming the new wardrobe?

Monday, July 29th, 2019

Textiles sent to Wellington’s Southern Landfill doubled since 2009 and it’s estimated that 25 per cent of it was perfectly fine clothes – that could have been recycled, reused or diverted. Read more

Mural of kneeling George Pell in handcuffs removed

Monday, July 29th, 2019

Australian artist Scott Marsh says he was disappointed to hear his mural of convicted child sex offender and former archbishop George Pell had been painted over – but he wasn’t surprised. “Given the history of some of my other works with religious themes it lasted longer than I thought it might, to be honest,” he Read more

The heartbreak behind our visa backlog

Monday, July 29th, 2019

New figures show the government has slashed resident visa numbers to the lowest seen in the last two decades. The decrease in resident numbers in the last year is largely because of delays in processing. “It’s not clear whether that is part of the way they’re bringing the numbers down because they have a target Read more

Israeli forest fire spares Christian shrine

Monday, July 29th, 2019

A forest fire in northern Israel that threatened a church where Christians believe the transfiguration of Jesus took place was extinguished without the shrine being damaged, firefighters said Sunday. The fire on Mount Tabor, where the Basilica of the Transfiguration is located, broke out Thursday and had been put out late Friday, but “small fires Read more

Orange Van: A shower and a chance to wash clothes

Monday, July 29th, 2019

The van Orance Sky arrived in New Zealand in October 2018 from Australia. The van is fitted with a shower, two washing machines and a clothes dryer, and open to use for anyone living without these basic necessities. Orange Sky’works in Australia with 27 vehicles servicing 22 cities each week. Read more

Boris Johnson, baptised Catholic

Thursday, July 25th, 2019

Questions about Boris Johnson, the new British prime minister’s Catholic baptism and whether he’s actually a Christian have been occupying the airwaves on the Spectator newspaper’s Holy Smoke podcast. The podcast said as a baby Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was baptised into the Catholic faith of his mother, Charlotte Fawcett. He was then confirmed Read more

Bishop encourages priests to celebrate Mass ad orientem

Thursday, July 25th, 2019

US Bishop James Wall of Gallup says each Sunday a Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral will be said with the celebrant facing ad orientem – the same direction as the faithful, in order better to respect the Blessed Sacrament. Such worship, he said in a July 22 letter to the Diocese of Gallup, is “a Read more

Ministry of Health asks if posthumous reproduction is acceptable to Kiwis

Thursday, July 25th, 2019

Opinions on whether genetic material from a dead partner could be used by their surviving partner to have a baby appear to be split as officials work to tidy up the law around the emerging issue. Two Kiwi women have so far turned to the courts to get permission to retrieve sperm from their partners. Read more

Forensic experts to study ‘thousands of bones’ found in Vatican ossuaries

Thursday, July 25th, 2019

During a search for the remains of a young Italian woman missing for more than 30 years, workers discovered an enormous number of bones inside two ossuaries in a building next to a Vatican cemetery. Further studies on the remains will be carried out starting July 27, but it was not yet possible to predict Read more

Trust established to support former Gloriavale members

Thursday, July 25th, 2019

During the past six years about 70 former members of the Gloriavale community based at Haupiri, on the West Coast of the South Island, have resettled in South Canterbury, Liz Gregory says it’s now time to set up a trust to help support those who had made the “massive” decision to leave the community of Read more