Food has become a discretionary item in many people’s budgets. Its low priority is just one of the changes Delphina Soti, General Manager of the St Vincent de Paul food Hub in Auckland is seeing. Covid has a long tail and there are many layers of need in the community, she says. “There’s a lot Read more
April was New Zealand’s deadliest month for Covid-related deaths since the pandemic began, according to recently-released statistics. New Zealand’s COVID-19 death toll has increased more than tenfold over the past two months. The government’s decision to keep schools and non-essential businesses open and to remove most public health restrictions is being blamed for the spike. Read more
For two years now, I have gone to Mass twice every Sunday, although I do so seated at my kitchen table. I can see the local Catholic church from my window, but I haven’t been inside it since the brief window, mid-pandemic, of supposed normality in July 2021. From my small town in Oregon, I Read more
If girls education makes societies stronger, more peaceful and prosperous, then the chances of Asia achieving those goals have become more distant with the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, girls’ enrollments in school had seen significant improvements in Asia. But with the pandemic, those gains have been wiped out. UNESCO estimates that about 24 Read more
There’s no doubt Covid changed the clergy. In New York, anyway. During the deadliest months of the coronavirus pandemic, when many New Yorkers most needed their faith communities, houses of worship were either closed or operating with limits on attendance. The solace of grieving with family and friends, the comfort of the communal rituals of Read more
A short text message and some creative thinking have opened the door to an entirely lay-led Zoom Liturgy of the Word. The move in the former Newtown and Island Bay parishes, now Wellington South parish, helps the community keep connected when parishioners are unable or anxious about coming to Mass. Essentially as a service of Read more
Nearly two-thirds of the people who have died in New Zealand’s Omicron outbreak are men, and experts say the science is inconclusive as to why. That is despite slightly more women having been infected overall, according to Ministry of Health data. Women also made up about 56 percent of those who have been hospitalised with Read more
There are “far too many” unvaccinated expectant mums in hospital with Covid. The comment comes from New Zealand researchers Leah Pointon, Anna Howe, Matthew Hobbs, Janine Paynter, Natalie Gauld, Nikki Turner and Esther Willing have been looking into vaccination coverage in pregnant New Zealand women. Pregnant women can still get vaxxed: it’s about saving your Read more
One morning in early March 2020 I got up, got ready and then walked down to the Lawrence Hill train station in Bristol. It was a Thursday and I was heading into London to work from my firm’s office for a couple of days while staying with my parents just to the north of the Read more
Catholics in southeast China have taken to the front line to battle a new Covid-19 outbreak that has been raging across various Chinese territories. In parishes of Jiangxi province, Catholics are involved in preventive measures including testing, contact tracing and other forms of medical assistance, says a report from the state-sanctioned Bishops’ Conference of the Read more