Judeena Carpenter, representing the Christchurch Irish Society, won the 2013 title ahead of seven other Roses in New Plymouth on Saturday night.

It was the first time the competition had been held in the region for 18 years after Taranaki's 2012 Rose Alana Marshall won the national title.

Miss Carpenter, a 25-year-old structural engineer, hails from Auckland but has been helping out with the Christchurch rebuild for the past 18 months.

"I'll be back in my hi-vis vest and site boots. Unfortunately being the Rose of Tralee does not get you out of Fletcher's health and safety policy," Miss Carpenter told the Taranaki Daily News yesterday.

Friends of Miss Carpenter joked she should enter the Christchurch competition while having a few drinks on St Patrick's Day.

"I was a little bit reluctant at first but I'm so glad I did it now," she said.

"I've gained a lot of confidence, met a lot of great people and learnt a lot about myself. It's all about challenging yourself and getting outside of your comfort zone."

The win had come as a shock, she said.

Miss Carpenter will now represent New Zealand at the international Rose of Tralee festival, in County Kerry Ireland, in August. Continue reading

In a homily in his pro-cathedral, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the Church "should be active and present in society, drawing attention to suffering and repression of any kind and being alongside those who suffer".

He suggested that the Catholic Church in Ireland today has "again become too timid in bringing its liberating voice to the ‘demons' of Irish society.

"Scandals within the Church and perhaps a lack of real faith have made us all too timid in bringing the voice of Jesus and his Church to the basic issues of Irish society.

"We are tempted to succumb to the widespread opinion that Christianity is really something private and personal for our own devotion and inspiration and not something that has its relevance in the public square."

Archbishop Martin, who held several Vatican posts before becoming Archbishop of Dublin in 2004, said: "It is not that Christians want to impose their views on others. It is more a challenging question for believers to find ways of presenting and witnessing to the Christian vision in terms which can win over and be respected by those alongside whom we work.

"Each of us is called to ensure that our being a Christian somehow brings an added quality to the way we live and to the contribution we bring to society, through how we live our Christian lives in family, in community and in society and indeed into the complex world of science and economics, of politics and communication."

Referring to the instructions Jesus gave his apostles for their missionary journey, he commented: "The vision they present is the very opposite to a consumerist-driven rushing for the non-essential and the almost divinisation of the superfluous and the transient in life, which in the long term leads to emptiness."

Source:

Iona Institute

Image: Alpha