The Christchurch Cathedral is free to be demolished after a final court bid by opponents to preserve the landmark was rejected. The Great Christchurch Buildings Trust (GCBT) had contested a Court of Appeal decision that the demolition of the earthquake-damaged landmark could go ahead. The Supreme Court today declined that appeal. Continue reading
The Greymouth Salvation Army is upset at false claims posted on Facebook, urging people not to donate Christmas presents intended for needy families because staff unwrap and sell them. Captain Avis Owen said it was “absolute nonsense”. “We are all gutted that such a thing could be said. We do not sell the donated gifts Read more
Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops plan to push ahead with proposed reforms to reinstate divorced and remarried parishioners despite a warning from the Vatican’s top doctrinal official, according to a senior cleric. Stuttgart Bishop Gebhard Fuerst told a meeting of lay Catholics at the weekend that the bishops had already drafted reform guidelines and aimed to Read more
“As of 1 January all Vatican staff will have to clock in upon arrival at work. This includes monsignors but excludes cardinals and archbishops,” Italian news magazine Panorama reports in an issue out tomorrow. “This is how Pope Francis is starting to clamp down on slackers. Up until now, Vatican staff did not have to Read more
On a dark, damp and expensive Tuesday night at Sotheby’s auction house in Manhattan, one of the 11 surviving copies of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book (and the first book of Scripture) printed in English in America, was sold for the highest price ever recorded for a print book in open sale. The Read more
The Church of England is poised to offer public blessing services for same-sex couples in a historic shift in teaching. A long-awaited review of church teaching by a panel of bishops recommends lifting the ban on special services which will amount to weddings in all but name. Although the Church will continue to opt out Read more
Gerry Brownlee and Clayton Cosgrove may, on the surface, have little in common but if you look back a couple of decades, they share a strong bond. So too do Peter Dunne and Damien O’Connor. Even David Carter can put a similar claim to fame on his curriculum vitae. All five sitting Members of Parliament Read more
Former prostitutes and their advocates are calling for clients of sex workers to be prosecuted, saying the decriminalisation of the industry has failed them. Freedom from Sexual Exploitation director Elizabeth Subritzky told Parliament’s justice and electoral committee the only solution to the damage that prostitution caused, and the violence it created, was to prosecute buyers Read more
This morning in the Sala Clementina of the Vatican Apostolic Palace the Holy Father received in audience the managers and athletes of the national rugby teams of Argentina and Italy. Pope Francis described rugby as a very likeable sport, since “it is a tough sport, with a lot of physical contact, but it is not Read more
Fr Alec Reid, who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland, has died aged 82 in a Dublin hospital. During the 1980s, he secretly acted as a conduit between the IRA and politicians. He was instrumental in bringing about a 1994 ceasefire that led to peace talks and served as one of the witnesses who confirmed Read more