On Friday night I felt like I was playing a part in a movie. I’d come to Santa Barbara six months ago from Wellington on a student exchange. I was really excited to become immersed in the Californian lifestyle. I wanted to go surfing, to drink Californian wine, and have fun at the “Number Two Read more
In the aftermath of Islamic jihadis — the Boko Haram — enslaving Christian school girls in Nigeria, the Muslim intelligentsia, instead of doing some serious introspection, has chosen to exercise damage control. Columns by my co-religionists have appeared in newspapers ranging from the Toronto Star to The Independent in London and on CNN.com, where they Read more
It’s clear that Pope Francis has a style and approach to his job that contrasts sharply with those of his predecessors over the last 50 years. The frequently asked question is whether there is substance behind the style and if so, what does it look like? Traces of what he draws on are there to Read more
Everybody knows that same-sex marriage and homosexual acts are contrary to Catholic moral teaching. Yet that same teaching also says that gay and lesbian people must be treated with “respect, sensitivity and compassion.” As more states pass laws legalising same-sex marriage, more gay and lesbian Catholics are entering into these unions. This leaves some Catholics Read more
I’ve recently returned from a visit to Kiribati. For those who don’t know, the Republic of Kiribati is a remote island nation straddling the equator in the Pacific Ocean. It’s also where a small group of Good Samaritan Sisters have been ministering since 1991. I was there to witness the perpetual profession of Kakare Biita as Read more
In a recent interview with the world’s media when he was on a flight back to Rome from Brazil last July, Pope Francis answered a question about homosexuality by saying: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” Only God knows the secrets of each human Read more
It seems there has been a significant issue with bullying at a Wellington College. Dramatic headlines in the Dominion Post, such as, “Bullied teen’s broken neck fear” are almost a compulsory read; particularly when accompanied by an equally dramatic picture of a slight boy in hospital. Reading further, the article names the college and its Read more
All of us have been and the generations to come, will be born into an inheritance of one kind of another. Part of that inheritance is that we are heirs of a world scarred by the internationalising and industrialising of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past and that much historic prosperity has been Read more
The bishops of Oceania are assembling in Wellington, the largest gathering of bishops in New Zealand since the Federation of Bishops Conferences of Oceania’s first meeting in Auckland in 1994. Pope John Paul II wrote his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Oceania in 2001 specifically for the church in this part of the world under the protection of Read more
These days any single mother who decides to keep her baby is a heroine … even a saint. Ironically, for those who identify as Catholic, greater courage may be required. Catholic bioethicist Bernadette Tobin writes: “In order to understand the teachings of the Catholic Church in relation to questions about the beginning of life, we Read more