Two Indonesian dioceses have issued an appeal calling on Catholics to raise funds to assist the victims of the earthquake that struck the tourist island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia. And Catholic hospitals in Indonesia have sent medical teams to treat hundreds of people injured in the earthquake. Speaking to ucanews.com Read more
Ta’u Pupu’ moved from Tonga to the United States with his family when he was about eight years old, the youngest of nine siblings. As a young man, he was accepted into Weber State University in Utah on a full football scholarship. From there he was drafted to the Cleveland Browns. He later went on to Read more
Reverend Esther, the leader of a South Korean doomsday cult, has been arrested for allegedly holding some 400 followers captive in Fiji. Esther, whose legal name is Shin Ok-ju’, is the founder of the Grace Road Church. The church has a corporate branch called the GR Group. Esther was arrested with three other cult leaders Read more
Millions of tonnes of illegally logged timber, felled from forests across Papua New Guinea (PNG), are being exported to China and from there to the world as finished wood products, a new report from Global Witness has revealed. In 2016, PNG provided 29% of China’s tropical log imports, making it the country’s single largest supplier. Read more
In a country where the news is often about incidents of religious intolerance, Muslims and Catholics have been coming to each other’s aid. Last Sunday over 3,500 people joined a charity run organized by Indonesia’s Jakarta Archdiocese to raise money to build churches in various parts of the country. Most were Catholics but Muslims also Read more
Bishop Enrique Figaredo addressed the Assembly of Catholic Professionals in Brisbane last week, during an Australian tour that included his attendance at Proclaim 2018. Born in Gijon, Spain in 1959, he joined the Society of Jesus he was stationed at refugee camps near the Thai border from 1984-1988. Since 2000 he has been the Apostolic Prefect Read more
Hundreds of bargain hunters packed the car park and the halls of the former Accion Hotel in Agãna, Guam, hoping to find bargains at its cash-and-carry sale last Saturday. Deacon Leonard Stohr said there were an estimated 350 people camping outside the hotel’s entrance at 5:00 am. The hotel had been used to house the Read more
After assessing Christian missionary efforts from 1668 to 1950, researchers claim to have found the spread of Christianity in the Pacific was driven more by the influence of political leaders than grassroots empowerment. This challenges one of the most widely cited reasons for Christianity’s popularity, that it spread from the “bottom-up” by empowering lower classes Read more
Father Damian Marinus celebrated his 89th birthday last Saturday. He arrived in the Cook Islands with his life-long friend Father John Rovers on November 11, 1957. His first appointments in the Cook Islands were to Mauke and Atiu. “Over time, Father John identified with Mauke and Father Damian with Atiu,” said Bishop Paul Donoghue speaking Read more
New Zealand will review its approach to Pacific migration from next year. Immigration policy towards the Pacific, including the quota system which is drawn by random ballot, has been criticised for being outdated and discriminatory. Labour MP Iain Lees-GallowayLabour MP Iain Lees-Galloway Photo: VNP / Phil Smith Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said New Zealand is Read more