Pope John XXIII used to make secret unscheduled trips out of the Vatican, driving around Rome and the surrounding area, a former papal aide has revealed. “Good Pope John” would occasionally say he needed to “escape”. Continue reading
Pope John XXIII used to make secret unscheduled trips out of the Vatican, driving around Rome and the surrounding area, a former papal aide has revealed. “Good Pope John” would occasionally say he needed to “escape”. Continue reading
Pope Francis has criticised “anaesthetised” Catholics whose “attitude is crippling the apostolic zeal”. At a Mass on April 1 in the chapel of the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta guesthouse, he also slammed as hypocrites those Christians who are only interested in formalities. Continue reading
Strip club owners the Chow brothers have dropped plans for a controversial, central-city, 15-floor super-brothel, in a last-minute backdown welcomed by opponents of Auckland’s burgeoning flesh trade. John Chow said a bruising liquor licensing battle had exhausted the brothers’ patience. “I think with the new liquor licence and the law change, we will be looking Read more
Christ Church Cathedral restoration campaigner Jim Anderton has dismissed the Archbishop of York’s calls for a demolition and rebuild as unqualified and disappointing. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican Church hierarchy. Last week Sentamu visited the ruins of the cathedral , and said Read more
An American priest, Franciscan Fr Jerry Zawada, has been removed from public ministry for concelebrating Mass with a woman priest in 2011. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered Fr Zawada, 76, to live a life of prayer and penance at a Franciscan Friary in Wisconsin. Fr Zawada, a long time peace and Read more
Cardinal George Pell has publicly apologised in person to a victim of child sex abuse by a priest at Royal Commission hearings in Sydney. This followed an apology to John Ellis in statement by the cardinal that was previously sent to the commission. Continue reading
During an audience with people who are blind and deaf on March 29, Pope Francis called for a “culture of encounter” and rejected a “culture of exclusion”. “The sick or disabled person, because of their fragility, limits, can become a witness of this encounter: the encounter with Jesus, which opens us to life and faith, Read more
One of architecture’s most prestigious international awards has been given to the man behind Christchurch’s cardboard cathedral. Shigeru Banhas been named the winner of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The 56-year-old Tokyo-born architect is known for his elegant, innovative and resourceful approach to design, as well as his humanitarian efforts. Ban will be given the Read more
A century-old convent’s transformation into a gracious family home got a tick from perhaps the hardest people to please – the nuns who used to live there. The former Brigidine Sisters convent, built in Pahiatua in 1912, was bought and trucked to Greytown in December by retired academic John Bushnell to be turned into a Read more