Posts Tagged ‘Family’

Family violence – Council of Churches insulted by report’s findings

Thursday, October 18th, 2018
family violence

Samoa’s National Council of Churches has described as “insulting” an Office of the Ombudsman report that blamed them for exacerbating family violence. The report says: Traditional village councils and the church have been complicit in maintaining the veil of silence on the issue The church is generally failing in its role to prevent family violence Read more

Normal marriage does not exist Cardinal tells WMoF

Monday, August 27th, 2018
cardinal nichols

There is no such thing as a normal marriage Cardinal Vincent Nichols told the World Meeting of Families in a keynote address. “Everyone is different” and all married couples will go through periods of difficulty. Fragility and brokenness are part of that. Couples and families often need resources and support, Nichols said, although they should Read more

Family breakdown is behind our high prison numbers

Thursday, July 26th, 2018

I was born in 1951, at a time when New Zealand’s crime and prison numbers were incredibly low, averaging one or two homicides a year until the early 1960s say Garth McVicar. So what went wrong? The one common denominator – that Mr Little and his colleagues won’t dare talk about – is the traditional Read more

Hundreds of priests support Humanae Vitae

Monday, June 18th, 2018

Hundreds of priests in Britain support Humanae Vitae – the encyclical affirming traditional Christian teaching on the family and sexuality. The encyclical, written by Pope Paul VI and issued in July 1968, specifically deems artificial contraception as being “absolutely excluded” and “intrinsically wrong”. The British clergy have signed a statement endorsing the encyclical as its Read more

More than 700 children taken from their parents at USA border

Thursday, May 31st, 2018
refuges

This year on the Mexico-United State border, immigrants coming into the United States, even those applying for asylum at ports of entry, have been having their children taken from them. According to data prepared by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), from October 2017 to April 2018 more than 700 children were taken from adults Read more

Family breakdown and mental health problems in teens

Thursday, December 7th, 2017

You might imagine that the way our parents behave towards each other and how they behave towards us ought to be a major factor in how we develop as teenagers. After all, our parents are the most important people in our lives. We see them at close range more than we see anybody else. They Read more

Principal: Schools being asked to perform role of parents

Monday, November 20th, 2017

A Dunedin school principal is increasingly concerned by the social expectations imposed on schools – and says some parents need to take more responsibility for their children’s actions. During the recent King’s High School senior prizegiving, rector Dan Reddiex praised his present cohort of pupils for their outstanding achievements during the year but went on Read more

Conscience not the same as personal preferences – Pope Francis

Thursday, November 16th, 2017
conscience

“Too many people confuse a rightly-formed conscience with personal preferences dominated by selfishness” Pope Francis said in a video message to an Italian meeting on ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ his exhortation on the family. “Conscience,” he said, “always has God’s desire for the human person as its ultimate reference point. “The contemporary world risks confusing the primacy Read more

Conscience, heresy, Amoris Laetitia and Pope Francis

Monday, November 13th, 2017

Developing and using your conscience is of prime importance when working your way around moral questions, Pope Francis told the Italian Bishops Conference on Saturday. His comments aimed to help the bishops explore their conference theme: “The Gospel of Love between Conscience”. Drawing on Amoris Laetitia (AL), his 2015 post-synodial document, Francis defended AL’s stance Read more

Childless couples set to be the norm in New Zealand

Monday, October 30th, 2017

Almost a quarter of a million more couples are projected to be living without children by 2038, Statistics New Zealand says. Couple-without-children families account for more than half the projected growth of all families, increasing from 513,000 in 2013 to 757,000 in 2038 (up 244,000). While this figure includes “empty nesters”, there is also an Read more