Frida Kahlo is a name many are familiar with. But a remarkable Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is less well-known. Her name before becoming a nun was Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez, and she was born around 1651. Nicknamed “The Mexican Phoenix” and “The Tenth Muse”, she advocated for the feminist Read more
One of the issues for today’s religious, is that many men and women in religious life can be tempted to focus on the decline in numbers of vocations in their orders. Francis made the comments to an online conference on religious life in Latin America. Urging the religious to renounce the criterion of declining numbers Read more
Sister Beverley Rita Grounds was born in Christchurch in 1928, the only daughter of four children born to James and Mary Grounds. The family were well-known in Catholic circles, with brother William going on to become a priest in the diocese. Grounds read newspapers in Italian, translated religious scripture from French to English and keenly studied te Read more
Conservationists from Chester Zoo have formed an unlikely partnership with an order of nuns – in a project that could save a critically endangered amphibian from extinction. A salamander that is unique to Mexico – has almost been wiped out of its freshwater habitat by pollution and over-fishing. Read more
70-year-old Brother Denis O’Brien was farewelled from Ōtaki last weekend. He has been there only for a short time but now he is off on a mission to Thailand. He is planning to stay in Thailand for two years and then he will come back to New Zealand. O’Brien celebrates his 50th Jubilee of Marist Religious Read more
A recent meeting in Manila focused on the theme of “building community in an intercultural world.” In her opening remarks, International Union of Superiors General (UISG), President Sr. Carmen Sammut spoke about how Religious congregations are changing. Communities in Europe, America and Australia are shrinking, with more younger members coming from Africa and Asia. Cultural Read more
When magicians are asked as to who qualifies as a Magician’s Magician, the first name that comes up is Br. Hamman. Most magicians are incredulous when they find that the standard by whom all card tricks are judged was not only a devout Catholic but, in fact, a consecrated brother. He went by the stage Read more
Those of us who entered religious life just after Vatican II will probably remember it in the words of Wordsworth after the French Revolution: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”. Those were exciting years. In February 1968, aged 19, I entered an Irish Cistercian monastery. It was just three years after the Read more
Before Hamilton East was a destination for recycled clothing and fancy ice cream, it was a home for nuns. Nuns have been in Hamilton East since 1884, says Sister Raewyn Hogan, and four generations of her family have gone through Marian Catholic School and Sacred Heart. Euphrasie House is now an earthquake risk building is being Read more
About 200 people turned up at Hamilton’s St Peter’s Cathedral this afternoon to farewell Br Brian Harley, a 90-year-old Franciscan Friar who spent the last 10 years of his life at Hamilton’s Friary of Divine Compassion. When you consider that Br Brian had long had a love of what he called a “semi-erimitical life” – Read more