Cardinal John Dew, the Archbishop of Wellington, has announced that as from 1 February 2016, the Archdiocese will take responsibility for the pastoral care of the parish of Saints Mary and Joseph in Otaki and Levin. Dew has thanked the priests and brothers of the Society of Mary for their pastoral care and leadership in Read more
Up to ten bishops in England and Wales would support the Church discerning if ordaining married men is a way forward, a retired bishop says. This is because those bishops are in charge of diocese where there is a significant shortage of priests, said Bishop Crispian Hollis. The former ordinary of Portsmouth diocese said he is increasingly Read more
An Irish bishop wants his fellow bishops to set up a body to look at the possibility of ordaining married men to the priesthood. Bishop Leo O’Reilly of Kilmore has urged his colleagues to arrange a commission to this end. Bishop O’Reilly also wants such a commission to study the possibility of female deacons. He will raise the Read more
Now that Napier’s three parishes have been combined decisions have to be made about the use of the buildings. The four lay staff and three priests, who previously worked within the three parishes of St Mary’s, St Patrick’s and St Thomas More, are presently working out of the unified parish’s temporary site at St Mary’s Read more
An overhaul of the Wellington Archdiocese will soon see the three Catholic Wairarapa parishes merge into a single combined parish. The three separate parishes of Masterton, Carterton and Featherston will combine to become the Catholic Parish of Wairarapa, as of February 1. The new parish will be centrally administered from Masterton, but all five Catholic Read more
The Hutt Valley’s 11 Catholic parishes could be reduced to six as the wider Wellington archdiocese struggles with a declining number of priests. Wellington archbishop John Dew has produced a discussion document for consideration by all church members detailing proposals for wide ranging structural changes. It includes amalgamating 47 regional parishes into 23. Proposals to Read more
The Catholic Church in Ireland has denied a report in the Irish Catholic newspaper that plans are being drawn up to allow parishes to hold lay-led Sunday services. But, across the Irish Sea, the archdiocese of Liverpool is preparing to have lay people conduct funeral services and committals at the graveside when no priest is Read more
The Archdiocese of Wellington, New Zealand, is presenting a four-day orientation session in May for recently arrived priests coming to serve in the NZ church, called “Landing the Waka.” These priests come from Samoa, Kiribati, the Philippines and India. As well as information about the church, their welcome pack includes information on New Zealand and Read more
Earthquake damage, ageing clergy and smaller congregations have led to a decision which will see the number of parishes reduced from 50 to 24 in the Christchurch diocese The new parishes are larger and often involve a single priest holding services at more than one church. Christchurch Catholic Bishop Barry Jones said the reduction would “cause some Read more
I’ve said this so often I probably ought to have it printed on T-shirts: the most important Catholic story of our time is the demographic shift from the global north to the south, with two-thirds of the Catholics in the world today living in the southern hemisphere, a share that will rise to three-quarters by Read more