Terminally ill lawyer Lecretia Seales has reached a confidentiality agreement with the attorney-general over part of her evidence in her case to clarify the law on assisted dying. Three “interveners” – two interest groups and the Human Rights Commission – have been allowed to take part in the case, and their role was further defined after a hearing Read more
An Italian man hung up on phone calls from Pope Francis twice, thinking they were pranks. The Pope called Franco Rabuffi, who was sick, to comfort him. As he usually does when calling people who are suffering, the Pope opened by saying “Hello, I’m Pope Francis”. On the third papal phone call, Mr Rabuffi was Read more
American Cardinal Raymond Burke has said Cardinal Walter Kasper wants to change the Church’s magisterial teaching. In an interview with German daily Die Welt, Cardinal Burke said “we are all bound by the Magisterium”. “But some synod fathers, above all Cardinal Kasper, want to change it.” Cardinal Kasper’s “merciful” solution for remarried divorcees who wish Read more
Pope Francis has said the martyrdoms of modern Christians of many denominations will nourish “a new era of ecumenical commitment”. The Pope said this during a meeting with members of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) in Rome. The Pope said ecumenism is not a “secondary element” in the life of the Church. Referring Read more
Education Ministry figures show the communities around low-decile schools are poorer than ever but better educated. School deciles are based on five indicators – parents with no qualifications, crowded households, household income, parents receiving income support, and parents with low-skilled occupations. Decile one schools are the 10 percent of schools with the most students from Read more
A trust that owns two charter schools has bought its students a $100,000 waka to help with their learning. He Puna Marama, which received $6 million of government funding for its two Whangarei schools over two years, but also gets revenue from elsewhere, says it bought the 22-person, 14m carved kauri waka with money specially Read more
A tai chi class made up of elderly women and arthritis sufferers has been booted out of a church hall over fears they are a threat to the church’s “spiritual wellbeing”. The group’s leader said the 20 women had been practising tai chi in the Central Southland Presbyterian Parish hall without issue for five years, Read more
Pope Francis has said he will visit Portugal in 2017 for the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions in Fatima. Following a private audience with the Pope, Bishop Antonio Marto of Leiria-Fatima told media that Francis expressed a desire to make the trip, provided he is still “alive and healthy” at the time. If Francis Read more
Honolulu diocese is planning to return to the traditional order of the sacraments of initiation because Confirmation of teens isn’t working well. In a pastoral letter, Bishop Larry Silva said Confirmation is “often experienced more as a graduation from the Church than as a free gift of God’s grace”. He cited Pope Francis’s 2013 description Read more
Every cathedral should have a holy door as part of the year of mercy, the bishops of England and Wales have said. The bishops have welcomed Pope Francis’s initiatives for the Jubilee Year of Mercy which starts on December 8. Among these is installing a holy door at each cathedral and shrine. Holy doors, or Read more