The New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference (NZCBC) is following the response of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference to some of the recommendations made by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in its final report. The seal of Confession In a statement, the NZCBC says Confession is often not understood. “In many cases, the Read more
Representatives of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC) presented their reservations about David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill to the Justice Select Committee on Tuesday. Bishop Charles Drennan, Dr Caroline Newson, who works in acute psychiatry medicine, Dr John Kleinsman and researcher Dr Sue Buckley from the Nathaniel Institute made submissions. Drennan talked Read more
The New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference (NZCBC) and its centre of bioethics, The Nathaniel Centre say that abortion is both a health and a justice issue and it should continue to be treated by the law as such. Their concern is that that making abortion purely a health issue would limit or remove the rights of the unborn Read more
Te Rūnanga o te Hāhi Katorika ō Aotearoa has given their website a new face, a new name and a revitalised content. The comprehensive site includes liturgy music written by Richard Puanaki, Mass in Māori, te reo pronunciation guides, information on wāhi tapu (sacred places), liturgical calendar, links to Pope Francis’ communication direct from the Read more
The New Zealand Catholic Bishops have voiced strong opposition to the End of Life Choice Bill in their written submission to the Justice Select Committee. The Bishops say that while some popular polls claim that New Zealanders are in support of the Bill, many commentators note that in fact what they are expressing is a view on Read more
Last year, the Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC) set up an establishment board to create a structure to provide Catholic tertiary education in New Zealand. They appointed Sir Brian Roche to be the chair. He is a former senior partner of PWC New Zealand and has been chief executive of the New Zealand Post Group. The Board members Read more
Pope Francis has included a quotation from a 30-year-old statement of the New Zealand Bishops in his latest Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate: on the call to holiness in today’s world. The quotation is taken from the New Zealand Bishops’s statement Healing Love – In support of Married People and Divorced Catholics, which the New Zealand bishops Read more
The New Zealand Catholic bishops will continue to follow their own pastoral practices with respect to the children of priests rather than adopting the Irish bishops’ guidelines. The bishops’ spokesperson, Amanda Gregan, responding to questions from RNZ, said the bishops had “read with interest the Irish Bishops’ guidelines concerning children of priests”. However, “They will Read more
The Bishop of Palmerston North is encouraging senior students in Catholic schools to get involved in the debate on euthanasia and to make submissions on the End of Life Choice Bill. Bishop Charles Drennan has sent out a letter to year 13 students in Catholic Colleges, suggesting they get involved in the discussion that is currently occurring Read more
During their recent meeting in Wellington, the New Zealand Catholic bishops discussed Pope Francis’ Motu Proprio ‘Magnum Principium’ (the great principle) which lays out the procedure for preparing translations of liturgical texts from Latin into local languages. They say they will be working in collaboration with English speaking Bishops’ Conferences around the world as they Read more