Any New Zealand Catholic can have a prayer offered for them in Rome next month without leaving the country! Cardinal John Dew, who is the President of Bible Society New Zealand (BSNZ), will offer prayers for those who have participated in the Poverty and Justice Bible Campaign at his church at the end of November. Read more
The first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis, defended the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate. “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can Read more
Being an aid worker turned me into someone I never wanted to be. In between moments of rising to the challenge, giving until it hurt, were many moments of great selfishness, rashness, anger, borne out of a feeling that I was almost constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place. The idealism that none Read more
Cardinal John Dew challenged the 400 strong congregation attending the launch of the new Poverty and Justice Bible to take up the cross of others who are struggling and to act on God’s Word. Even before the launch Bible Society had sold 220 Bibles which funds the 220 copies that will be given to people Read more
This week is Social Justice week. The focus this year is family poverty. Almost a quarter of all New Zealand families with children experience income poverty. 2014 Child Poverty Monitor That means that these families live on less than 60% of New Zealand’s mean income. Only 37% of the adults in these families are in paid Read more
A Poverty and Justice Bible campaign will be launched with an event hosted by Cardinal Dew on 13 September. The campaign has not only received the support of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference but also endorsement from Cardinal Peter Turkson in his capacity as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. A Read more
Observant New Zealanders, who have noticed the number of children with poverty-related skin diseases soaring while gated communities proliferate, may be surprised to hear a think-tank claim that New Zealand has ‘no problem of rising inequality’. That surprise would be justified, since the gap between rich and poor has in fact widened dramatically. And the Read more
For more than a year, Sister Megan Rice, 85, a Roman Catholic nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, had caught occasional glimpses of the glittering World Trade Center from her living quarters: the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison on the Brooklyn waterfront. So when the Volvo she was riding in one Read more
In debates about refugees, asylum seekers and mass migration, a crucial issue is the moral and political status of borders. Do we think borders are good or bad, a necessary evil or a moral necessity? My contention is that those who argue for open borders under-value a sense of place and the integrity of the Read more