There are no official nationwide figures on Muslims in New Zealand but anecdotally there are signs of a growing interest in the Islamic faith. Since the Christchurch terror attack, thousands have taken Qurans or other literature. Imam Nizamul Haq Thanvi of the International Muslim Association of New Zealand said immediately after the attack, three to Read more
On the night before Easter, a group of soon-to-be Catholics stood in flowing white robes holding candles, waiting to be summoned by the cardinal. One by one, under the cathedral’s soaring ceiling and stained glass windows, he dabbed oil onto their foreheads, praying, “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Roman Catholic Read more
Before he converted to Judaism Abraham, Carmel had served as a Catholic priest for 10 years. And the Catholic Church was not his first spiritual home. He had grown up in London in an Anglican family and turned to Catholicism in his 20s. Read more
Grumble, grumble, grumble, went Tim Wilson, author, journalist, TV guy, brainy guy and wit. Have I left anything out? Oh, yes, there is the little matter of his conversion to Catholicism. He said: “Were you surprised when you heard I’d become a Catholic?” Of course I was surprised! Wasn’t everyone? But why was I? he Read more
Tom Leopold is a very funny guy. He’s also a Catholic. He has been funny longer than he has been a Catholic. But being a Catholic doesn’t stop him from being funny. “I can’t go more than two lines without getting a laugh,” Leopold told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from New York. Read more
This is not a particularly successful season for converts to Christianity. Often more respect is shown to those who “dialogue” from outside of the Church than to those who embrace the Christian faith and ask for baptism. But it is also true that conversions to Catholicism are more numerous than one might think. Departing from Read more
An Israeli appeals court has asked Catholic bishops to join proceedings to help them decide a divorce case involving a Maronite couple. The court overturned a lower court ruling that awarded compensation to the husband because his wife refused to change her religion so he could divorce her. Maronites, founded in Syria, form the only Read more
A day after the beatification of a Sicilian priest killed by the Mafia, Pope Francis called for “these gangsters” to convert to God. Father Giuseppe Puglisi, who was murdered by Sicilian Mafia in 1993, was beatified in Palermo on May 25. Shocked by his death and inspired by his example, many of Sicily’s priests began Read more
Church recruiters are using schools as “mission fields” to convert children to Christianity, despite claiming their aim was to educate not evangelise. The country’s largest provider of religious instruction, the Churches Education Commission, told its followers in a recent newsletter that schools were an “under-utilised mission field”. “Churches by and large have not woken up Read more
John Wayne, for many, was a Hollywood legend who symbolized true masculinity and American values. To Fr. Matthew Muñoz, though, he was simply “granddaddy.” “When we were little we’d go to his house and we’d simply hang out with granddaddy and we’d play and we’d have fun: a very different image from what most people Read more