St Catherine’s Cathedral in Utrecht, Netherlands is expected to be closed and sold due to an ongoing decrease in attendance, as the aging building has become more expensive to maintain. The cathedral will likely be sold to the Museum Catharijne Convent, a former convent that was turned into a religious art gallery. Read more
Mr James van Schie is to be the new general manager of Auckland diocese. van Schie has spent the last two and a half years as executive officer for the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference in Wellington. Immediately prior to that he was director of parish support and development for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. Read more
A new mass abduction of students from a school in the English-speaking area of Cameroon has been carried out by guerrillas demanding independence from the rest of the country. On 16 February, unidentified gunmen came into the campus of Saint Augustine’s College, in the northwest region, and 170 students, two college security guards, one teacher Read more
St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Te Puke has had to close its doors. An initial earthquake assessment has the building rated “Cathegory E”, the worst possible rating and in the interests of public safety, the church decided to stop using the building. Churchgoers will still be able to attend Mass, the Anglican vicar, Rev Ruth Read more
Evangelising others is wrong, say 47 percent of Christian millennials. A study conducted by the Barna Group found Christian millennials think it is especially wrong to share their personal beliefs with someone of a different faith “in hopes they will share the same faith.” Read more
The case against 20 clergy of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa for failing to file tax returns may be heading to the Supreme Court after a motion by the defence this week. Read more
Critics say a centuries-old law that exempts charitable companies from paying tax need to be changed. As Checkpoint‘s Nita Blake-Persen reports, you might be surprised how many products in your pantry are made by companies which don’t have to pay tax. Continue read
The Pacific Immigration Development Community is concerned about the increasing slave trade in the region. It says human trafficking to the point of slavery is increasingly common in industries like logging, mining and fishing. Read more
Whittaker’s have launched pink and blue chocolate bars as a fundraiser for Plunket. But critics said it reinforces gender binary stereotypes. There have been a variety of reactions. Here are some of them.
The Pope says the liturgy is not about a ‘past that no longer exists’ or a ‘presumed future’ Nor can it be reduced to a matter of taste, becoming the subject of ideological polarisation, because it is a primary way Catholics encounter the Lord. Read more