News Shorts

St Vincent de Paul in Paris leads effort to resettle migrants

Thursday, August 2nd, 2018

Members of St Vincent de Paul in Paris are helping migrants by providing practical and spiritual help. Coordinating Catholic aid is Jerome Perrin, president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris. Read more

Sir Toby Curtis delivers emotional plea against charter schools closures

Thursday, August 2nd, 2018

The closure of charter schools risks the spiritual impoverishment that New Zealand’s education system had historically imposed on Māori, a select committee has heard. Māori educator Sir Toby Curtis, who recently submitted a treaty claim against the closures, delivered an “emotional” plea for the schools to remain as is on Wednesday morning. Continue reading

Australian saint thanked for miracle Parkinson’s cure

Monday, July 30th, 2018

Australian saint Mary McKillop has received thanks from a man she cured from Parkinson’s disease 10 years ago. On 18 July Ricky Peterson of Kansas City, Kansas revisited St Mary MacKillop’s tomb with a prayer of thanksgiving for the seemingly miraculous event that had changed his life a decade earlier. Peterson first knelt at the Read more

Indigenous Global Ecumenical Gathering meets in New Zealand

Monday, July 30th, 2018

The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia and the Anglican Missions Board in Rotorua are hosting the World Council of Churches (WCC) for its 2018 Indigenous Global Ecumenical Gathering (IGEG) and youth pre-meeting. Read more

International Federation of Catholic Universities has first female president

Monday, July 30th, 2018

The International Federation of Catholic Universities has elected its first female president, Dr Isabel Capeloa Gil. Gil is the Rector of the Catholic University of Portugal. In her acceptance address at the 26th General Assembly Meeting, Gil said she will “work to make the power of the few the strength of the many”. Read more

Kids doing 11-hour days in before and after school childcare

Monday, July 30th, 2018

Monday morning, 7.30am. While children across the country are waking up to a new school week, Lisa Boddy’s 8 and 10-year-old are already at childcare. They’re just two of the 190,000 Kiwi kids in both before and after school care, often doing longer hours than their parents. Continue reading

Italy’s deputy prime minister compared to Satan

Monday, July 30th, 2018

Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has been compared to Satan by a Catholic weekly newspaper. The Famiglia Cristiana cover shouts: “Vade retro Salvini” (“Get back, Salvini”). Evidently, the headline is a tweaked version of the medieval Latin formula used during exorcism. Read more

New film captures the legacy of social justice campaigner Celia Lashlie

Monday, July 30th, 2018

It was supposed to be a film about the last year of social justice campaigner Celia Lashlie’s life. She died at 11.33pm on day three. Continue reading

Homoerotic dance at church celebrates priest’s ordination

Thursday, July 26th, 2018

A homoerotic dance featured in a newly ordained priest’s first Mass. Fr. Fabian Ploneczka, 33, of Germany’s Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese, celebrated his first Mass on 15 July at his home church of St. Moritz in Augsburg. Read more

Family breakdown is behind our high prison numbers

Thursday, July 26th, 2018

I was born in 1951, at a time when New Zealand’s crime and prison numbers were incredibly low, averaging one or two homicides a year until the early 1960s say Garth McVicar. So what went wrong? The one common denominator – that Mr Little and his colleagues won’t dare talk about – is the traditional Read more