New Zealand Catholic Bishops welcomed the Census 2013 figures on religious affiliation published today and noted that the majority of New Zealanders identify with a diverse range of religions, although the number that don’t have a religious affiliation is increasing. “The number of Catholics is fairly similar to the number published in 2006, with about Read more
Pope Francis has convened an extraordinary Synod meeting in Rome next year, on marriage and the family and has asked Bishops Conferences worldwide to undertake wide consultation with their people, in order to provide input to the discussion. The New Zealand Catholic Bishops have put the questions from the Extraordinary Synod document in an online Read more
The Archbishop Wellington, New Zealand, John Dew has announced a major organisation of the parishes in the Archdiocese. Some parishes will merge to create a new parish. All parish churches will be retained. The parish mergers will be implemented over a period of two years and will be completed no later that 1 February 2016. Read more
The Roman Catholic and Anglican archbishops of New Zealand are inviting their churches to pray and discuss how the Christian gospel is foundational to the rights and needs of victims, offenders, and their families. The archbishops, John Dew, Justin Duckworth and Philip Richardson (above) say a justice system, levels of offending, and victims’ needs and Read more
The New Zealand bishops were grateful to have discussions with Cardinal Oscar Rodrigues over the weekend in Wellington soon after the inaugural meeting of the Commission of Cardinals and the Pope’s visit to Assisi. “Speaking with Cardinal Oscar gave us real insight into Pope Francis and what he is doing,” said Archbishop John Dew, President Read more
Last week St Patrick’s College Kilbirnie opened its new artificial turf. Wellington City Council covered $800,000 of the floodlit artificial turf’s $1.7 million bill. The responsibility for finding the remaining $900,000 to fund the artificial turf has been accepted by the St Patrick’s College Foundation. Some avenues of revenue generation have already been identified. The Marist Read more
On Sunday June 2 at 5pm, in Rome, Pope Francis will be presiding over a holy hour in St Peter’s, and the invitation has gone out for Catholics all over the world to join him in prayer. For Kiwis, it is a big call because 5pm Sunday in Rome translates in to 3am Monday June 3 in New Zealand. 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
A radical group, Catholic Action, is angering some gay-friendly New Zealand MP’s and the NZ Catholic Bishops, the latter seemingly powerless to do anything about the extreme fringe group. Banned by the bishops from using the word Catholic in their name, Catholic Action raised the ire of MP’s after sending an email telling them they were Read more
In the Archdiocese of Wellington, New Zealand, Archbishop John Dew has drawn up a plan – A Future Full Of Hope – to reduce the number of parishes in the Archdiocese. The plan, based on an extensive two-year review, was recently presented to parish priests, parish leaders and school principals at meetings held at Viard Read more