Dunedin’s Bishop, Michael Dooley met with Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday. Bishop Dooley (top left) is among the 74 newly-appointed bishops from 34 countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America including those as diverse as Algeria, Myanmar, Cameroon and Indonesia attending a 12-day seminar learning about the roles and responsibilities of bishops. Bishop Read more
Joy Cowley’s book “Notes to a Friend” has been named as a finalist in the Ashton Wylie Book Awards. “Notes to a Friend” is a group of short letters around nine Christian themes and joins four other finalists in the “New mind, body, spirit” category. Ms Cowley’s motivation for writing the book came by way of her conducting retreats. She noticed that while most Read more
At least four Australian bishops have banned or restricted sales of a book by Emeritus Bishop William Morris, which details how he was sacked by Pope Benedict. Bishop Morris’s book “Benedict, Me and the Cardinals Three”, published by ATF Press, is banned from sale in Catholic bookshops in Toowoomba and Brisbane. It is only available Read more
Why did I join? Well the short answer is, I went to college one night and I was getting some material for an assignment that was overdue. I popped in to see Father Fred Bliss and he said, “What are you doing next year?” I said, “Well, I don’t know.” What might you be doing?” Read more
Being ordained was a time of giddy celebration. I was vaunted as one of the celebrities of life. I remember actually the day after my ordination saying to Joan, my sister, “Gosh, I was at the centre of attention last night at the ordination and now I’ve got all this responsibility and all the hype Read more
One of the negatives I would have about Greenmeadows is there is no old boys association. The relationship between it and its alumni was bizarre. There were hangovers of the Irish ‘spoiled priest’ routine – that there was something bad about opting out along the way. In the early days people just disappeared. There’s be Read more
I’ve spoken to Gerard Vaughan and Kingy, and I think there is an underlying issue for us all: how do we replace something as intense and as wonderful as our live in the seminary? It left quite a vacuum. When I left the seminary, i did struggle to find the signficant meaning that it provided. Read more
In my fifth year they decided I would go to Mount Street. I was enrolled for the polytech and also for two papers at varsity: New Zealand History and Comparative Religions. As time went on I dropped the polytech and concentrated on the papers at varsity I quite enjoyed history and Comparative Religions but whether I should have gone Read more
The Archbishop of Wellington, John Dew, has responded to yet another wave of the media’s perennial fascination with exorcists and exorcism by saying Wellington does not have an appointed exorcist, and as far as he knew, the Wellington Catholic Archdiocese had never needed one. Exorcisms in New Zealand are rare, but they do happen – and Read more
The NZ Apostleship of the Sea (AoS), the Catholic organisation serving visiting seafarers and fishers in NZ ports, held its AGM at the Pa Maria Retreat and Spirituality Centre in Wellington at the weekend. The organisation is reported to be “ship-shape” with sound management and financial reports as well as a boost to volunteer numbers. Read more
