The risk of dying from COVID-19 is at least 50% higher for Māori than New Zealanders from European backgrounds, according to our study published 4 September 2020. Māori and Pacific populations are historically at greater risk of hospitalisation and death from pandemics. During the 2009 influenza pandemic, the rate of infection for Māori was twice Read more
There has never been a more critical time than now to think about who you would want to speak up for you should you become sick and dying, and what matters to you most. “Contemplating one’s death may be the most profound form of meditation. Death is the backdrop of life, and at times like Read more
The crypt chapel in the Church of Holy Mary of the Conception in Rome is composed completely of human bones, hanging lanterns and all. While the chapel is some “weird Catholic stuff,” to say the least, it does present a pressing and unavoidable lesson: that our lives are short and that we are all going Read more
Former US President Jimmy Carter said he was “at ease with death” while speaking in front of a crowd during a Sunday school service this weekend. The lifelong Baptist appeared in church less than two weeks after being hospitalized for fracturing his pelvis in a fall. The 95-year-old was teaching Sunday school at the Maranatha Read more
Perhaps someone very dear to you has already died, and you know the pain of losing them. Our Christian faith teaches that through our dying, “life is changed, not ended”. Not only that: it teaches that “… all the good fruits of human nature, and all the good fruits of human enterprise, we shall find Read more
The emeritus bishop of Rarotonga, Stuart O’Connell, died in Auckland on Friday at the Little Sisters of the Poor, St Joseph’s Home, Herne Bay. He had been ill with cancer for some time. Pope John Paul II appointed O’Connell to be the bishop of Rarotonga in November 1996. He was ordained bishop on February 22 Read more
It’s 50 years since Swiss-born pioneer in death studies Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote her classic text, On Death and Dying. The book introduced readers to the “five stages of grief” model she had developed to explain how people cope with death. The five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. Then in 1995, following a Read more
Dying and death is not a new phenomenon: we have always become ill, suffered, were going to die and someone else could have killed us. So why now, at the beginning of the 21st century, after prohibiting euthanasia for thousands of years and when we can do so much more to relieve suffering than in Read more
The people of Vanuatu showed their love for President Baldwin Lonsdale who died on 17 June by turning out in their thousands for his funeral and procession to the airport. His sudden death was as a result of a heart attack. He was 67. Lonsdale, who served as president from 22 September 2014 until he Read more
Is Holy Week really worth the effort? If you talk to pastors, liturgists, choir directors, leaders of RCIA, etc., Holy Week is a time of frenetic activity, the culmination of much planning and lack of planning, and somehow—at least sometimes—inspiring. And then…? Well, a few weeks of lilies and extra “Alleluias!” and then back to Read more