Aotearoa New Zealand’s new Apostolic Nuncio is Archbishop Gábor Pintér. He will also serve as Apostolic Delegate to the Pacific. Pintér succeeds Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, who returned to Rome in March after suffering a stroke last October. The Apostolic Nuncio is the Pope’s chief diplomatic representative – the equivalent of an ambassador. Archbishop Pintér Archbishop Read more
The Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya and South Sudan, Archbishop Hubertus Maria van Megen, describes “horror scenes” in Sudan during continuous fighting. He issued a stark warning at the end of Bishop Cleophas Oseso Tuka’s Consecration Mass. Unless the Sudan war is halted in time, the violence and horror scenes will “spill over” to neighbouring countries, Read more
New Zealand’s Catholic bishops are again stressing the importance of bishops to the Palmerston North and Hamilton dioceses. At their November meeting the bishops re-emphasised the need for two bishops to the Pope’s diplomatic representative to New Zealand, His Excellency, Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa (pictured). New Zealand bishops are appointed through the Dicastery for Evangelisation headed Read more
Antipodean New Zealand is not in the Holy See’s neighbourhood, but it is no real excuse for having two dioceses without bishops for so long, says Luke Coppen, in The Pillar. It is three years since Charles Drennan resigned as Bishop of Palmerston North. Coppen points out it appointing bishops in New Zealand has not Read more
Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa as Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand and Apostolic Delegate to the countries of the Pacific. Archbishop Rugambwa was born in Bukoba, Tanzania in 1957, ordained a priest in 1986 and Archbishop in 2010. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1991 and has served in Read more
The Vatican is not rushing to act against an Indian bishop whom a nun has accused of rape. The unidentified nun, who is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, laid a complaint with the police at the end of June of being raped in May 2014. She says Bishop Franco Mulakkal also sexually abused Read more
Archbishop Thomas White, who has died aged 85, had a long and distinguished career in the Vatican diplomatic corps and served in Africa, Asia, the Americas, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. In 1988 White was appointed to New Zealand, with responsibility for the vast Oceania territory, involving practically all the island states of the Read more
Climate change threatens to displace i-Kiribati, the people of the low-lying atoll nation of Kiribati. However if relocation proves necessary it will not be the first time that i-Kiribati have found themselves, en-mass, in a ‘strange’ land. The recently appointed Apostolic delegate to the Solomon Islands, Archbishop Mathew Kurian Vayalunkal received at a true i-Kiribati welcome Read more
“every person is immensely holy and deserves our love. Consequently, if I can help at least one person to have a better life, that already justifies the offering of my life. It is a wonderful thing to be God’s faithful people. We achieve fulfilment when we break down walls and our heart is filled with faces Read more
Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Martin Krebs as apostolic nuncio to Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu. Archbishop Krebs was previously apostolic nuncio to New Zealand, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, and apostolic delegate in the Pacific Ocean. Source Vatican Information Service