The Catholic Church’s Theology of the Body lecture series in Fji last week targeted young people. Two priests from the United States, Fathers Walter Schu and John Paul Duran, spoke to the audience of young people about the use of contraception and the ideas of love and abstinence. “Contraception closes us off to the gift Read more
What lies at the heart of moral decision-making? If there were an Olympics of university teaching, I’d expect Michael Sandel to place highly. Sandel is a professor at Harvard University and teaches an extraordinarily popular course on ethics (you can watch it on YouTube – look for “What’s the right thing to do?”). He opens Read more
A website launched on Monday to oppose the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill has been taken down after what has been described as one of the “largest unprecedented” denial of service attacks on a website in New Zealand. Family First, which launched the Protect Marriage website, says after being alerted by media that the website was down, Read more
Hamilton City councillors have voted nine to one against the Erotica Expo being held in the Claudelands Events Centre next year. Councillor Maria Westphal who chaired the strategy and policy meeting yesterday said “It was a balance between losing the money and not upsetting a large portion of the community.” She said the expo did not match Hamilton’s “family friendly values”.
Councillor Ewan Wilson, who was alone in voting in favour of the expo, was “completely frustrated” with the decision. He said his “ultra conservative” co-councillors were “running very scared” after the V8’s debacle and were vote hunting. Wilson said no firm potential revenue was given for the two-to-three day event, but between $50,000 and $60,000 per year was the figure “bandied about” for what would have likely become an annual event.
The Erotica Expo’s promoters are still mulling over their options after obtaining legal advice that the councillors’ decision could be open to challenge through the courts. Spokesman David Crow said it was most definitely not the end of the road. He said the council had no authority under the Local Government Act to have made the decision on moral grounds, and “we have challenged and won against the Auckland City Council on a similar basis”.
The Claudelands Events Centre is facing a loss of up to $1.7 million in its first year, and a working group had been formed to reduce costs and increase custom.
Read the article...All five Hutt South candidates would support a bill on assisted euthanasia to at least the select committee stage, voters were told last night.
About 30 people gathered at the Petone Library to hear the candidates – plus New Zealand First’s Rongotai candidate Brent Pierson – tell them why they should get their vote.
Read the article...
Legalising euthanasia would introduce a whole new, and dangerous, dimension to society, said the New Zealand Catholic Bishops. One of the dangers is that the demand for euthanasia cannot be limited to a carefully defined group and vulnerable members of the community would be put at risk. Archbishop John Dew, President of the New Zealand Read more
There were 20,900 marriages registered to New Zealand residents in the December 2010 year, down 700 or 3 percent from 21,600 marriages in 2009. A further 2,200 marriages were registered to overseas residents in 2010. The highest number of marriages in any year was in 1971, when 27,200 couples tied the knot. “What we should be doing is actively encouraging Read more
Former leader of the east-German communists, Gregor Gysi, on Friday, praised Pope Benedict for consistently preaching that modern society must have moral norms in order to function properly. “It won’t work without the concept of the good,” Gysi wrote. “But modern science can’t tell us what is good. Its concepts focus on empirical experience. Ideas such Read more
Forty years ago our parents had to get married if they wanted to have sex and children. Those who flouted the convention were either careless or brave. Today, nearly half of the children born in New Zealand are born outside marriage. At any one time, though, only about 12 per cent of them live with Read more
A Vatican sponsored executive summit on ethics for the business world has called for the employment of ethical business policies within companies and bringing economic justice to the wider world. According to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, the real challenge is taking common principles and translating them into concrete action that will Read more