A Colombian mariner adrift at sea for two months thanked God and his rescuers after his deliverance in the Pacific Ocean. The 29-year-old had survived by eating fish and gulls. He was one of four sailors who left Colombia in a skiff two months ago. At some point their engine failed and they were left Read more
A Tasmanian transgender activist has withdrawn her anti-discrimination case against the Catholic Church over a marriage booklet. Martine Delaney had complained to Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commission about a booklet produced by Australia’s Catholic bishops. The booklet, titled “Don’t Mess with Marriage”, was a pastoral letter from the bishops sparked by the same-sex marriage debate. Ms Delaney Read more
Two US Catholic colleges are adopting housing policies which will allow students of different sexes to share a room based on gender identity. The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco (USF) will have the gender-inclusive housing policies for the 2016-17 academic year. The USF recently updated its Read more
New Zealand has the worst rate of family and intimate-partner violence in the world. In 2015, police around New Zealand attended about 105,000 family violence callouts. If each of those incidents was represented by a person, that’s getting close to the population of Tauranga. It is estimated that 80 per cent of incidents go unreported Read more
Two Auckland men have now pleaded guilty to what is believed to be the country’s first charges for watching radical Islam videos of beheading and violence. Niroshan Nawarajan, 27, and Imran Patel, 26, have been in custody since being arrested – Patel in November last year and Nawarajan in January. Nawarajan pleaded guilty in the Read more
Two priests are among 14 people arrested for the alleged kidnapping and assault of an Indian bishop. Police said Fr Raja Reddy engineered the kidnapping and attack on Bishop Prasad Gallela last month and this was motivated by “greed for money and power”. According to police, the suspects confessed to four earlier attempts to kidnap Read more
Brisbane’s Anglican diocese is to investigate a parish which allowed two convicted paedophile former priests to be lectors. Barry John Greaves and Robert Francis Sharwood were both given recurring roles doing readings at services at the Holy Trinity Church, Fortitude Valley, after serving time in jail for sexually abusing children. Brisbane Anglican diocese regulations introduced Read more
After a raid on a storeroom near St Peter’s Square, police have seized a cache of 340,000 illicit Vatican souvenirs worth some US$2million. The souvenirs carried the Pope’s photo without permission, as well as illegally carrying the Vatican coat of arms and the emblem of the papal tiara. The merchants selling the trinkets wanted to Read more
Mary Kamo has retired after 33 years as a chaplain at Christchurch Women’s Prison. When Mary Kamo started working as a catholic chaplain at Christchurch Women’s Prison, there were fewer than 50 prisoners inside the facility. It was 1983 and she was the first laywoman to become a chaplain to prisoners in New Zealand. Read Read more
Maori prayers could be banned from the classroom if campaigners are successful in their bid to remove religious instruction from state schools, an academic says. AUT history professor Dr Paul Moon’s comments come after a High Court judge last month threw out a test case because the parent challenging the legality of the Bible in Read more