Another thirty-five refugees have flown out of Nauru heading to the United States for resettlement. Almost all who flew out yesterday for Los Angeles are single Afghan, Pakistani or Rohingya men. This brings to 84 the number of refugees who’ve flown to the US since resettlement began in September.
A former judge of the Roman Rota, the Vatican’s highest appellate court, has accepted a plea bargain in an Italian criminal court. He faces a conditionally suspended sentence of one year and two months in prison on charges of sexual molestation and possession of child pornography. Read more
This Easter, Bible Society New Zealand is giving away 100,000 copies of The Super Cool Story of Jesus. They want to tell the message of who Jesus is to children nationwide. The society says it’s the chance to get the story of Jesus into the hands of children who may never have heard this story Read more
The Catholic diocese where two priests were killed this month has withdrawn all nuns from Chilapa city in southern Mexico. The diocese says the parents of one of the nuns have been killed. In addition, the school the nuns run had to close for several months last year due to threats from drug gangs operating Read more
New Zealand women are having fewer babies than ever had before. Stats NZ reports that the total fertility rate in 2017 was 1.81 births per woman. This is the country’s lowest recorded level. Continue reading
France has returned three 16th-century oil paintings to the descendants of a German-Jewish couple. The couple sold the artwork to flee the Nazis. On Monday, France’s culture minister, Francoise Nyssen, handed the paintings over to Henrietta Schubert and Chris Bromberg, who are descendants of Herta and Henry Bromberg. The handover was made during an official Read more
It could be a nervous game of wait and see this weekend for the parents of kids plucked from the sea after a high bacteria warning interrupted a school trip north of Wellington. St Theresa’s Catholic School staff and students had been swimming at Plimmerton Beach for about an hour on Friday when a Porirua Read more
A humanist campaign group in the United Kingdom wants four-year-olds to be taught about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi and trans-gender) issues. It has branded religious views on sexuality “discriminatory.” Humanists UK, formerly known as the British Humanist Association, issued a statement backing government plans on new primary school relationships education. Read more
An East Timor priest and academic on trial for corruption has accused the country’s courts of breaching the nation’s Concordat with the Vatican. Relevant parts of that accord require the prosecutor and court to inform the bishop of the relevant diocese in writing about a case against a priest. Father Martinho Gusmao contends that these Read more
An Australian Anglican priest has reacted publicly to the most recent mass-shooting in the United States. Following last week’s slaughter of 17 pupils at a Florida school, he adjusted his church’s billboard to read: “WHEN WILL THEY LOVE THEIR KIDS MORE THAN THEIR GUNS”. Read more