A Safe Church Programme is to be introduced to the Catholic Church in New Zealand and a person with education experience has been appointed to run it. Maria Noonan, who will develop and deliver the programme, was introduced at a Safe Church Training Day held in Wellington on July 30. She will work as part Read more
A group of Muslims in Fiji are asking politicians not to use religion to gain support before the nation’s General Election on September 17. Spokesman Mohammed Sareem said the group had formed because a former government minister overseas has been accusing Muslims of being part of the 2006 coup. “We urge politicians to keep religion Read more
An American clergyman is seeking funding to re-establish an Anglican presence on Pitcairn Island. The St Helena Star in the United States reported that John Brantley, who claims to be an Anglican Rite Old Catholic priest, is hoping to get to Pitcairn. At present, the Seventh Day Adventist Church is the only form of organised Read more
An American Catholic priest removed from ministry in Guam over historic sex abuse allegations in California has left the Pacific territory. Fr John Howard Wadeson left Guam last week saying he had been falsely accused. The priest said he decided to leave because he didn’t want false accusations against him to tarnish Archbishop Anthony Apuron. Read more
Concerns have been expressed that laws against consensual sex between men in the Pacific region are undermining efforts to prevent and treat HIV. An international Aids conference in Melbourne last week was told about the problematic results of such laws. But men having sex with men remains illegal in more than one-third of all Pacific Read more
Revivalist churches in Papua New Guinea are promoting prayer as a substitute for medication to those with HIV, according to human rights groups. But The mainstream churches in PNG are working with the United Nations and non-government organisations to help people access services. Catholic archbishop John Ribat is a member of the Christian Leaders Alliance. Read more
Funaki Vehekite grows food crops such as kape, taro, yam, cassava and squash at his farm in Tonga. It allows him to support his family and keep his five children in school. He is the secretary of a farming collective called the St Anthony of Padua group The collective is part of Caritas Tonga’s sustainable Read more
A controversy has arisen regarding an alleged attempt to transfer ownership of property owed by Archdiocese Hagåtña to an organisation connected to the Neocatechumenal Way. Last week, while on a visit to to Guam, the apostolic delegate archbishop Martin Krebs said he had come help build bridges and help those who want to build bridges. Krebs Read more
Samoan dancers gave an energetic performance at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, last Saturday, to coincide with the new exhibition Atua – Sacred Gods from Polynesia. The exhibition, which opened in May, features more than 80 works, most of which were created in Polynesia before the early 19th century. Gallery director Ron Radford Read more
The seminary librarians at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Suva have catalogued 19,000 records and put the catalogue online. They have been assisted by Hans Arns who is the project coordinator of Sharing the Word an initiative linking up Catholic seminary libraries and librarians throughout the world. This is being done to provide all seminarians Read more