One way to think about the Great Recession is like a great pause button. In normal times, millions of people get married in their mid-to-late 20s. They spend lots of money on a wedding. They buy a car, often with a loan. They buy a house, always with a loan. They buy new furniture and Read more
Family first for everyday New Zealanders. Spending time with loved ones was the most popular response in a nationwide survey which quizzed everyday Kiwis about their favourite pastimes. Twenty per cent of respondents to the “What Kiwis Love” survey – which was commissioned by Vodafone and conducted by Nielsen – listed family time as their Read more
Alice Bassett-Smith was married, and now she is not. She and her United States-born husband married in 2000, lived together in both New Zealand and the US, divorced in 2008 and have both moved on. So, she was stunned when telephoned “out of the blue” by a Catholic priest a month ago and told her Read more
A father’s love contributes as much — and sometimes more — to a child’s development as does a mother’s love. That is one of many findings in a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood. “In our half-century of international Read more
The Families Commission will lose six out of seven of its commissioners under reforms proposed by the Government, and more than half of its budget will be redirected into a new research unit. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett announced the major shake-up yesterday, in which the commission will take on a new monitoring and research Read more
There were 20,231 marriages registered to New Zealand residents in 2011. This is the lowest number of marriages since 2001 when 19,972 weddings were celebrated. The number of divorces also dropped, down from 8,874 in 2010 to 8,551 in 2011. “The decrease in divorces in 2011 is consistent with the recent trend of declining divorce Read more
The Methodist Church in Fiji nemains opposed to the legalisation of same sex unions. The Church’s general secretary, Reverend Tevita Nawadra, says the church will continue to stand firm against homosexuality because it is not scriptural. Nawadra said the church would not accept same sex unions because it was against its theology. “The church is Read more
Catholics who are passionate about the family, the life issues and the sexual issues go to one side of the room, and Catholics passionate about the social teachings of the Church to the other. And from their sides they both hurl blame, venom, scorn, and debate who is a true Catholic and who really cares Read more
The New Evangelization was the focus of Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks to the bishops of New Zealand and the Pacific on Saturday, as he received them at the end of their ad limina visits. In his address to the Bishops of New Zealand and the Pacific Pope Benedict spoke of the contribution of priests and Read more
Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that good Catholic families are necessary to bring about a re-Christianization of countries throughout the world.
“The New Evangelization depends largely on the domestic Church,” the Pope said Dec. 1 at the Vatican.
“In our time, as in times past, the eclipse of God, the spread of ideologies contrary to the family and the degradation of sexual ethics are intertwined,” he added.
“And just as the eclipse of God and the crisis of the family are linked, so the New Evangelization is inseparable from the Christian family.”
“The family founded on the Sacrament of Matrimony is a particular realization of the Church, saved and saving, evangelized and evangelizing community,” the Pope said.
He explained that just like the Church, the Catholic family is also called to “welcome, radiate and show the world the love and the presence of Christ.”
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