They should not regard their calling as a career in which to seek advancement and notice.

As he spoke, a bishop who personified this ideal was dying, in far-off Christchurch, New Zealand.

Bishop Barry Jones was the servant-priest that Pope Francis wants all priests to be.

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Vicar general Father Rick Loughnan confirmed Jones was taken to hospital from his Christchurch home about midday Sunday after suffering a stroke.

It is Jones' third stroke in recent years. His second happened around October 14 after which he spent a night in hospital.

He had planned to rest for two weeks before returning to work recently, according to the diocese's website.

"He is able to communicate well and the medical staff are confident they will have him on his feet soon," the diocese said in a statement on Monday.

"Please continue to keep him in your prayers."

Jones, who is expected to retire when he turns 75 next year, had asked for no visitors at this time.

Meanwhile, Loughnan will oversee diocesan matters.

Jones is the ninth Catholic Bishop of Christchurch.

He was appointed as coadjutor bishop of Christchurch, on 28 June 2006

When his predecessor, Bishop John Cunneen,retired in May 2007 he became the Bishop.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz

Bishop Barry Jones led the Mass of Commemoration at a packed St Patrick's Church in Akaroa, with Frs Paul Shannahan, SM, and Peter Conaghan, SM, also concelebrating.

French Marist missionaries celebrated a Mass on the foreshore of Akaroa Harbour on August 19, 1840, 175 years ago.

After this year's commemoration Mass, a social hour took place.

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A geotechnical assessment has confirmed that the former site will remain at risk of liquefaction, including subsidence and lateral spreading.

Repair and rebuild estimates are comparatively expensive because of the nature of the land.

Christchurch Bishop Barry Jones is undertaking a process of exploring potential sites for a new permanent site for Marian College.

A statement on the Christchurch Catholic diocese website noted that "Marian College will be rebuilt and will continue to provide quality single sex Catholic secondary school education".

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He voiced his concerns at the most recent New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference.

Jones believed he is the only priest in the South Island who can speak Te Reo.

He said the mass in Te Reo had been the foundation of the Catholic Church in New Zealand and it would be terrible if it was lost.

Deacon Danny Karatea-Goddard says unlike 30 years ago when there were many Maori missionaries who could speak Te Reo, there were not enough new priests coming through who could speak the language.

He said the priests who served Maori parishioners in the past knew all of the whanau in their communities including their whakapapa.

He believes that now that those ministers had gone the church did not have that same relationship with tangata whenua.

He believed that there were about a dozen Catholic priests who had Maori ancestry and the challenge now was to recruit more young Maori men to join the priesthood.

Karatea-Goddard is vicar to Maori Catholics in the Palmerston North diocese and an executive member of Te Runanga o Te Hahi Katorika - the Maori Catholic Council.

Source:

• Radio New Zealand

Last week Christchurch, New Zealand, Catholic Education office manager Mike Nolan announced St Paul's School in Dallington and Our Lady of Fatima School in Mairehau are to merge.

"The minister has agreed in principle to the formation of a new state integrated full primary school with the new name of St Francis of Assisi Catholic School."

A parent of two St Paul's pupils says the community's views had not been listened to.

"Personally I don't like the fact [that] my choice is being taken away from me . . . my choice to have a small school, a school close to my house. I know the people I've spoken to would [agree]," she said.

"St Paul's, the school and the staff, have done an awesome job looking after [the children] and our best interests but personally, I don't like the way the bishop or [Catholic Education Office manager] Mike Nolan have handled it."

Nolan said there has been "extensive community consultation" about the merger, including community meetings that started in September last year.

Bishop Barry Jones favoured the plan to merge the schools, as their parishes had already combined since the quakes, Nolan said.

"The bishop's view was pretty clear. One parish, one school, one church."

Mr Nolan says there will be another round of consultation on how best to appoint teachers and staff with the aim that the school be open for term 1 of 2016.

Click here to read about the consultation process, the report and related matters.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• nz.news.yahoo.com
• Image: The Press

The merger is to proceed and the new school will be situated in Mairehau, on the site of Our Lady of Fatima in Innes Rd.

Following the earthquakes and the red-zoning of St Paul's School the Diocese undertook a community consultation on a proposed merger.

After considering the community consultation report, the Bishop of Christchurch requested the Minister of Education to give consideration to agreeing to the provision of:

• a new state integrated full primary school entity (to be named St Francis of Assisi Catholic School),
• with a maximum roll of 495 students,
• situated on the St Francis of Assisi Parish site at 370 Innes Road,
• commencing in term 1, 2016.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has agreed in principle to Bishop Barry Jones' request.

Catholic Education Office manager Mike Nolan said the new school would receive a $6 million investment for new buildings and would have a maximum roll of 495 - "educationally a desirable number".

St Francis of Assisi is also the name chosen for the new parish formed by the merger of the St Paul's, Holy Family (Burwood) and Our Lady of Fatima (Mairehau) parishes .

Source

• The Press
• Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
• Scoop

Most recently assistance has been provided to the Parish of St Mary's Pro-Cathedral for a project to identify and support parishioners who have been disadvantaged by the earthquakes and to continue to facilitate a sense of community post parish amalgamation and to the Riccarton Parish to help take a group of senior retired parishioners on a bus trip to get them out and let them enjoy the company of others. During the trip, the parish team will speak to them and discover their needs and thoughts.

The Christchurch Catholic Diocesan Earthquake Recovery Fund was set up by Bishop Barry Jones to distribute money donated to him following the earthquake of September 4th, 2010 and the subsequent earthquakes.

The fund exists to help parishes and those within parishes to respond to the needs those people affected by the earthquakes in their own community and also to the wider community.

Click here to see full list of projects funded

The Diocesan Strategic Planning Committee, which has the task of preparing a draft plan on the future location of Catholic churches and schools in the Christchurch diocese, has been formed and has held its first two meetings.

Source

• The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
• Image: The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch

He says in regard to the Catholic schools, the commitment of families to them has been strong and consistent. Families who have been displaced from their homes continue to make huge efforts to remain part of their school ( and parish ) community, often travelling across the city and past other schools to bring this about. A number of Catholic schools have buildings which have been damaged, some quite recently.

Source

• The Star
• Image: AnglicanTaonga

• Parishes marked the anniversary in different ways, including offering prayers for those affected by the earthquake, stopping for a minute's silence at 12.51pm, tolling church bells, and lighting candles for victims of the earthquake.
• A Prayer composed by Fr Trevor Murray was sent to all parishes to be used in any Ash Wednesday earthquake memorial service and at Mass this the coming Sunday.
• In Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland a joint Anglican/Catholicearthquake memorial service took place.
• At the Civic earthquake Memorial Service in North Hagley Park, Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Bishop Barry Jones, introduced two minutes silence at 12.51pm and followed this with this with a prayer for victims and all those affected by the earthquake.

Bishop Jones said he had a lot of admiration for "the resilience and determination of Cantabrians" since last year's earthquake and that it was important not to forget the ongoing suffering many are experiencing.

"There are people who are suffering mentally, afraid of another earthquake and how they might cope. Others are suffering physically and struggling to adapt to life with injuries. Some people are waiting for answers about the future of their houses or have been evacuated from rest homes and are away from their friends, families and networks. We need to pray for these people and open our hearts to God", he said.

Sources

• New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference
• The Diocese of Auckland
• Image: Japan Today

"New and wider parish boundaries will now include previously separate parish communities, making possible a sharing of resources, both human and material. These changes will cause some sorrow and sadness, but also present new opportunities. For many priests it will mean spending less time on administration and more on undertaking their priestly duties and advancing the mission of the Church," says Bishop Jones.

"Sunday Mass is at the heart of the life of the church. It, and parish life, requires the foundational ministry of the ordained priest. Because we now have a reducing number of priests, parish amalgamations will see the formation of larger parishes, fewer in number", he says.

• 18 new parishes have been formed.
• Six of these will have a parish priest and an assistant priest, the others only a parish priest.
• The priest will live in the presbytery beside what will become the main church of the new parish.
• New enlarged parishes may have more than one school under their care.

Source

• The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
• Image: The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch

Bishop Jones has asked the two parishes to work together and to take the appropriate pastoral initiatives to forge an amalgamated community.

Cathedral management board Chairman Lance Ryan says the earthquake caused over $30 million worth of damage.

The Cathedral is in a precarious state, and the main dome and the north tower could potentially collapse further should a sizeable aftershock occur. These sections of the Cathedral are therefore a falling hazard, and until stabilised will continue to prevent the adjacent Cathedral College from reopening.

Ryan says the dome could fall at any moment and engineers cannot get inside until it's removed. Approval to remove the dome is expected in the next few days. Structural engineers are waiting on approval from Christchurch City Council before the dome can be removed.

Source:

• Radio New Zealand
• johncoconnor.blogspot.com
• Image: johncoconnor.blogspot.com

When asked if the Catholic diocese is considering these kinds of issues he said "We are, absolutely."Our churches have all been built in communities that wanted churches where they were," but "the point you raise is very interesting"." While the churches have good-sized congregations, "the real issue is whether they are the right places to have churches".

With the heavy concrete dome of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament making the building still too unstable to approach, the diocese office next door on Barbadoes St is also been off- limits. Bishop Jones said people are working from home on laptops; no-one can get in to retrieve files and computers. "It's so dangerous that no-one can actually get near it," He said. "If there was another earthquake like the one on February 22, the engineers think the dome would actually come down. It's a death trap."

In an ideal world, would Bishop Jones want it restored to its previous condition? "If it was feasible. It's an absolute treasure. But I'm not even beginning to think like that. It's just too soon.

Many other Catholic churches have also been damaged. A final prayer service has already been held at St Mary's in New Brighton, which is to be demolished. Historic churches in Sumner and Lyttelton have likewise been hit hard.

Source
Christchurch Earthquake
Stuff 26/3/11

Photo
Stuff