Oceania’s Pacific Islands are especially vulnerable to climate change, a climate conference in Rome heard this week. Registrations for the “Oceania Speaks” conference included representatives from the Holy See diplomatic corps, religious communities and charitable organisations. The June 23 event aimed to raise awareness of the impact of climate change in the Asia Pacific region. Read more
The Oceania region’s Catholic bishops have finished their week-long assembly in Fiji on a high note. “It has been a great joy for the bishops to gather this week to pray for and consider their shared mission as the Chief Shepherds of the region,” the concluding statement from the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Read more
The New Zealand Catholic Church is not on the expert speaking list at an Oceania Catholic climate crisis meeting. A world first, the conference is driven by the Australian Catholic University with support from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. New Zealanders, however, are still invited to register and listen in over Zoom. Read more
Catholic environmentalists say no innovative solution can stop pollution and protect marine life from man-made disasters. Not unless people truly change and learn to develop a ‘new relationship’ with oceans. “If we don’t feel it here [in the heart], it doesn’t matter how much, how little we have in our pocket. We’re not going to Read more
Caritas released its annual State of the Environment for Oceania report, Towards New Horizons, through a global webinar on Friday 2 October. The webinar featured speakers from across Oceania including Tonga, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Aotearoa New Zealand, and will be hosted by the Global Catholic Climate Movement. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has published Read more
Fiji Archbishop, Peter Loy Chong is calling for an Oceania Synod, a “Synod on the ocean”. He made the call while in Rome for the Amazon synod. “The Amazon and its forests are important, but we must not forget how significant the ocean is in the web of life,” Chong told Caritas’ Harriet Paterson and Read more
St Peter Chanel was born on 12 July 1803, the fifth of eight children, in a farming family with a small-holding in south-eastern France. The area was still troubled by the political instability that followed the Revolution. That, plus the need to help on the farm, meant his primary schooling was rather fragmented. In his Read more
The meetings and the work of the Synod of Bishops have slowly contributed to the dissolving of “our Euro-centric vision not only of the world but also of the Church”, said Cardinal Vincent Nichols. He used his address at the commemoration of the 50 anniversary of the Synod of Bishops last month to praise the Read more
New Zealand should use its voice at the UN to get more international climate change funding to the Pacific communities that most need it says the director of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand Julianne Hickey. “At United Nations level we certainly need for there to be a commitment from the countries that are causing the environmental challenges Read more
Stepping over a pig about to be slaughtered while accompanying the relic of a potential saint may seem a somewhat unusual piece of Church business. But for Bishop of Papua New Guinea’s Kimbe province Capuchin Bill Fey such events are not especially unusual. “On that instance, I was part of a procession carrying a relic of Read more