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
Last month Wellington hosted the four-yearly plenary assembly of the bishops of the Federation of Catholic Bishops of Oceania (FCBCO). But it would be no surprise if anyone attending the opening Mass thought they had been carried off to the Pacific Islands, with the vibrant contribution of the Samoan and Tokelauan communities. It was one Read more
The bishops of Oceania are assembling in Wellington, the largest gathering of bishops in New Zealand since the Federation of Bishops Conferences of Oceania’s first meeting in Auckland in 1994. Pope John Paul II wrote his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Oceania in 2001 specifically for the church in this part of the world under the protection of Read more
The haunting sound of the conch shell welcomed more than 80 Bishops from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, the Pacific Island nations and New Zealand at a powhiri (welcome ceremony) in the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Wellington New Zealand last Monday. The Mass that followed incorporated some aspects of the pasifika cultures that are Read more
Representatives from sixteen seminaries in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, and Guam have been meeting at The Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam for their annual Oceania Seminary Rectors’ Meeting. “What we have in common is the Pacific, the ocean. I think it is great that we can share a Read more
The Executive Committee of the Oceania Catholic Bishops’ conferences met in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 24 to 25 March. There are two bishops from each of the four Conferences on the Executive. The Committee members Expressed their solidarity and that of their Conferences with Bishop Jones and the people of Christchurch. All the bishops have experienced Read more