A $4 million performing arts centre being built at Rotorua’s John Paul College will rival similar centres around the country and fill a void left by the closure of the Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre. Principal Patrick Walsh said, once completed, the state-of-the-art facility would boast a dance studio, music suite, a drama suite Read more
Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli has enlisted the LGBTI community to help the church set a new direction after years of scandal and internal unrest. In an unprecedented move that has divided some within the church, the Archdiocese this month invited gay Catholics to a 2½-hour meeting at which they discussed how the institution should change Read more
A charity traditionally associated with disaster relief is helping a south Auckland community with its crisis – food. From late 2018, the Rapid Relief Team (RRT) has provided Papakura police with emergency food boxes that contain enough food for a family of four to live on for 24 hours. Read more
A French priest is trying to block the film “By the Grace of God”, which was shown at a Berlin film festival, from getting full release in France. The film claims to break silence on sordid goings on within the Church. The French director’s look at the sex abuse scandal that is engulfing the Church Read more
“We are not going to rely exclusively on our Filipino Catholic immigrants. We are going to do the bloody work ourselves,”. said regional economic development minister Shane Jones a recent speech on unemployment. Given a chance to roll those comments back a few minutes later, Jones did the contrary, saying the Catholic Church had done Read more
St Valentine’s day wasn’t invented by greeting-card companies. We inherited our contemporary version of Valentine’s Day from the Victorians, but some accounts — such as a story last year in Lifehacker and another from NPR on “The Dark Origins of Valentine’s Day” — have argued that the “real” history of the holiday can be traced all the way back Read more
A Brazilian archbishop has banned all priests in his archdiocese from being alone with children. Archbishop Manoel Delson signed the ban after the court ordered the archdiocese to pay almost £2.5 million in compensation over the sexual exploitation of minors. Read more
Last year was the first year that non-European/Pākehā students made up more than half the number of students in Catholic schools in New Zealand. Using Ministry of Education school roll data as of July, the New Zealand Catholic Education Office reported that students of European/Pākehā ethnicity made up 49.9 per cent of those attending Catholic schools in 2018. The next largest group was Pasifika Read more
Turkey is urging China to close mass detention camps estimated to hold 1 million people. Turkey, which is a majority-Muslim country, says China’s mass repression of its Uighur Muslim ethnic minority is a “great shame for humanity”. Read more
New Zealand comedian, television personality and mental health advocate Mike King has been named as the Kiwibank 2019 New Zealander of the Year. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern awarded him the honour at the 10th annual edition of the awards. Read more