A vicar has stepped in to marry a gay couple as part of a radio station competition after an Anglican parish was unable to host the ceremony. Reverend Dr Matt Tittle of the Auckland Unitarian Church in Ponsonby will officiate at the wedding of the couple that wins ZM’s Fabulous Gay Wedding competition. The broadcaster Read more
A Whangaroa kuia has told the Waitangi Tribunal the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act had terrible consequences for her mother. Ani Taniwha gave evidence this week at the Tribunal’s Ngapuhi inquiry, Te Paparahi o Te Raki. Mrs Taniwha said her mother could foresee the future, but her father feared she would be punished and tried to Read more
Emma Josephine Zuroski and Andrew Philip Norman were married Saturday by the Rev. Bernard Kiely, a Roman Catholic priest, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Auckland, New Zealand. The bride, 29, works in London for UBS, the Swiss bank, helping to allocate its internal resources. She is also studying for a Ph.D. in science and technology Read more
The sanctuary of Lourdes has announced its 69th official miracle — the curing of an Italian woman following her visit to the baths at the Marian shrine in 1989. Danila Castelli, a wife and mother, had experienced a spontaneous and severe blood pressure hypertensive crisis, as well as other serious health problems for which she Read more
Describing his personal conversion experience, the Archbishop of Canterbury says he felt “a clear sense of something changing” but “I was desperately embarrassed that this had happened to me, like getting measles”. Since then, says Archbishop Justin Welby, there have been long periods with “no sense of any presence at all’’, but he has never Read more
First it was February, then Easter, then July, but now it looks like August. The so-called Cardboard Cathedral has turned out to be a normal building project, the Anglican church says, but should be open for services by the end of the next month. The temporary Anglican cathedral, designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and Read more
A UK scholar and expert on Gothic Imperial architecture has slated the Anglican Church decision to demolish quake-crippled Christchurch Cathedral. Academic Alex Bremner wrote extensively about the cathedral, built by famed English architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, in his book Imperial Gothic. Continue reading
A crisis of sorts is developing in the appointment of Catholic bishops worldwide as a backlog of 187 sees (excluding China) remain vacant, writes Edward Pentin in the National Catholic Register. Half of Scotland’s ordinaries — four out of eight — have yet to be appointed. The Philippines has nine sees without a bishop, and Read more
Prosecutors allege two former top executives at the Vatican Bank repeatedly broke Italian laws on money-laundering by failing to give sufficient information when ordering multi-million-euro bank transfers. Key details missing on requested transfers included the identity of the owners of the funds and the reason for transfer, according to a Reuters report. While the prosecutors Read more
Devout married Catholics have the best sex of any demographic group, according to a collection of studies cited by the Family Research Council in the United States. A University of Chicago survey found the most enjoyable and most frequent sex occurring among married people, those who attended church weekly and people who had the fewest Read more