Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, has made a fleeting visit to New Zealand. He is the first Catholic vice president of the United States. Biden is more comfortable than most politicians in talking about how his Catholicism has affected his life and his views. In his campaign book in 2008 Biden Read more
On Monday a report about same gender marriage was presented to the General Synod of the Anglican Church. The report upheld the “traditional doctrine of marriage”, which defined marriage as being “between a man and a woman … life-long and monogamous”. However it proposed a compromise solution which would allow the blessing of same gender couples Read more
There has been a mixed online response to Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna’s remarks about the legalisation of same sex marriage in the Cook Islands. In a press conference last week he said that it was not currently an issue and there is no need to deal with it until it becomes one. His comments Read more
American Samoa is the only U.S. territory to hold out against the recent Supreme Court ruling that legalised gay marriage. Legal observers and gay rights advocates are saying it should go into effect immediately. American Samoa Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale hasn’t been ready to take that step. “We’re still reviewing the decision to determine Read more
A New Zealand organisation promoting the natural family has won a decision from the country’s High Court that its political activities do not necessarily disqualify it as a charity. On 30 June Justice Collins ruled that Family First New Zealand’s advocacy of the traditional family makes it similar to “organisations that have advocated for the Read more
The union between a man and a woman and its definition predates the state and church but now the bond had been defined as “marriage” said the Archbishop of Suva, Peter Loy Chong. He was speaking on the issue in the light of the United States Supreme Court decision upholding same gender marriage. “Firstly, it’s Read more
Earlier in the year, in Guam, a same gender couple launched legal action after being refused a marriage licence. Loretta M. Pangelinan and Kathleen M. Aguero, both 28, sued after the registrar refused them a license because Guam law defines marriage as a union between two people of the opposite sex. The Attorney-General said a Read more
Media have this week reported that Peter Westmore, the head of the leading Australian Catholic-based lobby group campaigning against same sex marriage in Australia, attended his daughter’s wedding to another woman in New Zealand last November. The headline for the news item read “Catholic crusader Peter Westmore blesses daughter’s gay marriage in New Zealand.” Liberal Read more
Former Football Ferns player Melissa Ray and sales representative Natasha (Tash) Vitali won a ZM Radio competition to have an all-expenses-paid wedding in the Unitarian Church in Ponsonby at 8am on the day same sex marriage became legal last August. They went by horse-drawn carriage to a reception at the Cloud on the Auckland waterfront, Read more
Prime Minister John Key spoke to more than 500 members of South Auckland’s Pasifika community on Tuesday. The meeting, with Pacific church leaders at the Samoan Independent Seventh Day Adventist Church in Mangere, was also a platform to promote National’s candidate for Mangere, Misa Fia Turner. Key says there had been a shift in support Read more