Complaints about a television campaign by an anti-abortion group have been dismissed, despite ones about a print advertisment from the same group being upheld. A series of television advertisements by Voice for Life featured a young woman, Ariana, who had an abortion at 15. In the advertisements, which aired on TVNZ, Ariana discussed the effects Read more
John Kleinsman believes there are better alternatives than euthanasia If euthanasia is legalised the right to die will all too easily become a duty to die. The crux of this debate is whether what a suicidal person proposes – to kill themselves – is a goal which should be shared and facilitated by the state, Read more
The son-in-law of Destiny Church leader Bishop Brian Tamaki has been awarded a $10,000 scholarship to help feed the needy. Vance McPhee and wife Jasmine will use the AMP scholarship to kick-start their business providing low-cost grocery boxes to low-income families. The couple have started building relationships with wholesalers and growers and have a ready-made Read more
Pope Francis walked the walk last weekend, when he followed through on his promise to make the Vatican more gay-friendly – or at least less gay-nasty – by honoring a sixteen-year-old gay American. Jack Ankara is an all “A” student at a public high school in Crownsville, Maryland, where half the student body drops out Read more
To commemorate 50 years since the production of its first sparkling wine Mission Estate is set to turn the pricing clocks back. It is a deal which winery staff believe will put as big a sparkle on the faces of the first 50 people to hit the online “buy” button on December 9 as there Read more
The New Zealand Buddhist Council is concerned that Buddhists who are sick or dying in hospital often do not have access to appropriate spiritual support. To address this, the Council has started to provide advice to hospitals on how to contact Buddhist clergy in their area when they have a patient in need. In the Read more
Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s new Secretary of State, arrived in the Vatican on Saturday and will be in his office at the Apostolic Palace as of Monday. Archbishop Parolin was installed as Secretary of State in absentia on 15 October, due to an unexpected surgical procedure he had to undergo that day. Fr Federico Read more
Pope Francis on Sunday advised Catholics to take a special dose of spiritual medicine, offering some 20,000 boxes of “mercy” – containing rosaries – to pilgrims in St Peter’s Square. “I now want to suggest a medicine. ‘What?’ you ask, ‘the pope is now a pharmacist?’” Francis said, shaking a box resembling a pack of Read more
The Vatican dismissed concerns today that Pope Francis could be a target of Italian organized crime because his reforms threaten what one mafia expert said were long-time ties between the church and criminal syndicates. “There is no concrete reason that would lead us to worry. There is no reason to feed alarmism,” the Rev. Federico Read more
Offensive graffiti appearing on the site of a proposed Muslim school, and negativity circulating about the Muslim education system, has dismayed the Al-Noor Charitable Trust. The former St Patrick’s Primary School site, in South Dunedin, was bought in April this year by the Christchurch-based charity which has plans to spend about $8 million building the Read more