News Shorts

New Zealand’s abortion rate rises slightly, though teen abortions fall

Thursday, June 21st, 2018

The number of abortions in New Zealand has risen slightly, reversing a decade-long trend. The abortion rate among women aged 15 to 44 was 13.7 per 1000 women last year, up from 13.5 per cent in 2016. Continue reading

Lutheran bishop praises Pope’s ecumenism

Thursday, June 21st, 2018

Lutheran bishop, Gerhard Ulrich, who is the leading bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany, has praised Pope Francis for his dedication to ecumenism. He says the relationship between Protestants and Catholics worldwide has reached an unprecedentedly positive level. He says a “historic milestone for Lutheran-Catholic ecumenism,” resulted from Francis’s joint leadership of Read more

Hato Petera on the brink of closure

Thursday, June 21st, 2018

The government has announced it intends to close Hato Petera College, the only Māori Catholic co-ed school in the country, after mounting concern around its finances, human resources and low student numbers. Read more

UK church spotlights human trafficking

Thursday, June 21st, 2018

Awareness of human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery are the focus of this year’s Day for Life for the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The day is dedicated to “raising awareness about the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.” Read more

David Seymour wants to cancel public holidays except Anzac and Waitangi

Thursday, June 21st, 2018

On Wednesday, the MP was asked to share his thoughts on whether Matariki should become one of New Zealand’s public holidays. “I think people should be able to make their own holiday arrangements. We don’t need the Government to tell us when to take the day off.” Read more

French church groups fight anti-migrant attitudes

Monday, June 18th, 2018

The French church has launched a programme to combat anti-migrant and anti-Muslim attitudes. Reports of tensions among Catholics have prompted the programme. “It is to resist the rise of tensions and hostilities within the Christian community that our movements have decided to work” with the French bishops’ conference. The groups say they hope to find Read more

Taitokerau Education Trust helps low decile students outperform higher decile schools

Monday, June 18th, 2018

Students in the Te Puawai cluster – which includes Manaia View School, Whau Valley Primary, Te Kura o Otangarei, Whangarei Intermediate, Tikipunga High School and Hikurangi Primary School – are making faster progress in learning than the average New Zealand school, according to a report by the University of Auckland’s Woolf Fisher Research Centre. The Read more

Presidential candidate speaks of religion and the soul

Monday, June 18th, 2018

Mexico’s Presidential candidate has spoken about religion in his campaign. “The time has come to present a proposal based on the aim that when we obtain the presidency, we must not only seek to achieve material well-being, we must also seek well-being for the soul,” Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says. The favourite to win July’s Read more

Wellington’s new City Missioner a former-public servant

Monday, June 18th, 2018

Wellington City Mission has found a new missioner in a former public servant who doesn’t wear a dog collar. Murray Edridge is the first not-ordained missioner to lead the charity in its 114 years, and the first in two decades to also assume the chief executive role. Continue reading

US returns stolen Christopher Columbus letter to Vatican

Monday, June 18th, 2018

A stolen letter from Christopher Columbus has been returned to the Vatican. The letter, worth US 1.2 million, was stolen and a forgery put in its place. “We do not know exactly when the substitution took place. We will probably never know who the forger was,” Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues says. Bruges is the Vatican’s chief Read more