International Women’s Day on March 8 draws attention to the lives of women. My research explores, in the inner lives of Pacific women, how their relationship with God can affect their wellbeing, and how their image of God relates to their relationship with their parents. How we name, visualise and describe God is most often Read more
A global child rights organisation has urged the government to curb early and unintended pregnancies among teenagers in the Philippines, which has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Asia. Save the Children Philippines drew attention to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recording 3,135 cases of adolescent pregnancies among young girls aged 10-14 in Read more
Various marches were held on March 8 for International Women’s Day in Latin America. Some feminist groups, however, used the occasion to vandalise Catholic churches and public buildings. Mexico was one of the countries where the most violence took place. In the country’s capital, Mexico City, protesters attacked the metropolitan cathedral located in Constitution Plaza. Read more
The Church’s largest ever study of Catholic women has found they are hungry for reform. Women resent their lack of decision-making power and want to follow their consciences on sex and contraception. They think the Church should be more inclusive of the diverse and the divorced. Women also want to be allowed to preach, they Read more
Abortion figured prominently in President Joe Biden’s statement in observance of International Women’s Day. It again underscores how his policies toward the unborn conflict with Catholic teaching on the right to life. “Every person deserves the chance to live up to their full God-given potential, without regard for gender or other factors,” Biden, a Catholic, Read more
Female leaders from the secular world and some of the highest-ranking women in the Vatican spoke positively of the pope and the church at International Women’s Day events in Rome last week. One of those women, Australian journalist Geraldine Doogue, lent her support to major institutions including the Catholic Church. Speaking at an event organised Read more
Sr Anne Gardiner’s six-decade mission service to Australia’s remote Tiwi indigenous population began with one simple instruction: “Love them.” The 86-year-old Gardiner was the guest speaker at the Australian Embassy for last week’s Holy See celebration of International Women’s Day. Gardiner, who is a sister of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Read more
To mark International Women’s Day on Thursday night, Newshub broadcast a montage of inspirational women to the tune of I Am Woman. While women from around the world and Pākehā New Zealand women were included, Māori women were not. Nor were Samoan women. The fact that Joan of Arc — a woman from 600 years ago Read more
The Archbishop of Suva, Peter Loy Chong, says churches and religions in Fiji need to examine their sexist and discriminatory attitude towards women. He says women must be included in decision-making and he has encouraged parishes to include more women in leadership roles, “especially in parish pastoral councils and finance committees”. Writing in the Fiji Times on Read more
The Vatican has banned former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, from speaking at a “Voices of Faith” conference. The conference has been held at the Vatican on International Women’s Day – celebrated on 8 March, since 2014. The list of potential speakers at the conference required approval from a cardinal. Mrs McAleese and two other Read more