A retired priest in California who was scammed out of his life savings wants the con-artist responsible to pay the money back or go to jail. Fr Michael Ortiz got a cheque in the mail for $1.6 million, and responded to a form he also received to enter a sweepstake. The retired priest had planned Read more
Conflict in Iraq, Syria and Gaza has led to the greatest humanitarian crisis the world has seen since World War II, a senior cardinal says. Caritas Internationalis president Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga told a Rome conference on Monday that there are 13 million Syrians in desperate need. More than four million Iraqis and Syrians are Read more
Rose Sawaya-Baxter, currently principal at Sacred Heart Girls’ College in New Plymouth, will take the reins of Bishop Viard College at the beginning of next year after the sudden departure in April of Teresa Cargo. The school’s official line was initially that she was on “study leave” but a resignation followed in June. Sawaya-Baxter is Read more
Kiwis Lindsay and Denise Christie went to Colombia in the 1960s and eventually founded a charity called Conviventia, which now works throughout Latin America to empower marginalised communities. Fifty years later, their grand-daughter Adriana Avendano Christie, 24, and her partner Gabriel Acuna-Caruajal, 30, have started charity which is a social enterprise called The Pallet Kingdom Read more
The lavish hilltop mansion owned by Destiny Church leader Bishop Brian Tamaki and his wife, Hannah, is for sale. The $1.6million property on a hilltop above Maraetai Beach, East Auckland, is described by the Mike Pero real estate team marketing the property as “500 square metres of pure luxury, style and elegance”. It boasts elevator Read more
Support from Catholics in Scotland could swing the upcoming referendum in favour of independence from Britain, a Scottish academic says. Writing in The Times, Professor Sir Tom Devine of Edinburgh University noted that, historically, Catholics in Scotland have not favoured devolution. This was because they were sceptical about the Presbyterian majority using devolution to gain Read more
A seminarian in the United States was ordained as a priest in a hospital bed only two days before dying of colon cancer. Fr William Carmona, 51, from Columbia, was ordained by Bishop David Choby of Nashville at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital Northwest in San Antonio, Texas, on September 8. Fr Carmona, who died on Read more
On June 27 Justice David Collins ruled the suspension that kept the Year 12 student and 1st XV rugby player out of school for five weeks, was unlawful, and conditions imposed on the pupil’s return to school were unreasonable. After “deliberately” waiting for “things to settle down in the papers”, the ruling said, Mr Melloy Read more
Celebrities, gang members, homeless people and religious leaders have equal importance in artist Stuart Robertson’s global work Peace in 10,000 Hands. His vision is to create a lasting conversation about peace by photographing a white rose in the hands of 10,000 people from all over the world. The photographs will eventually become part of an Read more