Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez said the new White House administration is cruelly playing with people’s lives, at a Vatican-sponsored conference last Friday. Gomez said fears surrounding deportation are not new and many people were deported when Barack Obama was president. However, he said the administration under President Donald Trump has set a harsh Read more
Brother Peter Bray is a New Zealander and Vice Chancellor of Bethlehem University – the first university established in the Palestinian territories and the only Catholic University in Israel/Palestine. He is visiting Aotearoa, and this week spoke at a public meeting in Wellington on the topic of how Bethlehem University should respond to the situation Read more
Catholics and Jews are America’s “most liked” religious groups, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey. Determined on a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0 (freezing) to 100 (very hot), Jews and Catholics achieved a mean rating of 67 and 66 respectively. Mainline Protestants are just behind at 65. The lowest ratings are for atheists Read more
A 99-year-old church for sale in Point Chevalier has a multi-million dollar CV. The Church of the Ascension in Point Chevalier, which closed for worship in July, was put on the market earlier this month. The 2004sqm Dignan St section has three buildings including the church, a vicarage and church hall. Continue reading
The UK Government is “abandoning its statutory and moral duty to take effective action for the protection of vulnerable, unaccompanied child refugees,” said Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster Nichols, who is the president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has asked the British government to review its decision to limit the number of Read more
THE news may come as a shock to many. Within a day and a half, every 36 hours a person in Fiji attempts suicide. The Fiji Times reported the Minister for Lands and Tourism, Faiyaz Koya, as saying: “Fiji’s suicide rate has topped the Pacific and was four times more than the road death toll.” Read more
Clerical abuse is “an absolute monstrosity” says Pope Francis. His words have been published as a preface to a new book by Daniel Pittet, a Swiss victim who was sexually abused for four years by a priest when he was a child. In the preface, Francis also asks for forgiveness on behalf of the Catholic Read more
Cardinal John Dew says the topics for the Wellington Archdiocesan Synod in September “are primarily drawn from the directions Pope Francis has been putting before us.” The topics will be the subject of the diocese-wide consultation process which begins on 7 May. They are: The peripheries of society Our own peripheries Refugees and migrants Care Read more
The Vatican’s updated charter for healthcare workers has been published. It provides a clear set of guidelines to modern ethical concerns such as euthanasia and the creation of human-animal chimeras. Read more
The Vatican has sent conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke to the Pacific island of Guam to investigate an important case alleging sexual abuse. Burke, a Rome-based American, is due to interview a former altar boy in Guam on Thursday who says he was sexually abused by Apuron, the Pacific Daily News reported. Continue reading