Every human institution – be it a family, a village, a company or a worldwide Church – must rely on certain virtues that are common to its members if it is to survive. This is the truism that is at the basis of every system of ethics – both those that have been written down Read more
Without trust, human cooperation is impossible. Without trust, people refuse to cooperate and instead engage in struggles over power because they fear what will happen if their opponents have it. Today, we see this in the highly charged partisan character of American politics and in the Catholic Church, where the hierarchy has lost credibility. A Read more
A recent survey suggests that, in the last 2 years, New Zealanders’ trust in churches has continued to decline. The same survey shows that the perceived change in personal trust in churches in the same period to be greater than the participants’ answers actually indicate. The results indicate a score of 7 for reduced net trust. The Read more
Hoatu is an $8million dollar fund the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch has established to help women, children and families in Canterbury. The money became available when, in 2016, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd returned the proceeds from the sale of property in Halswell in the south-west of Christchurch. The diocese had given the land to Read more
A French couple has admitted to the synod on the family that they used artificial contraception after the birth of their third child. But Olivier and Xristilla Roussy said their experience with contraception was not a good one. After their third child was born, Mr Roussy said, Xristilla was exhausted; they thought that using the Read more
Some 74 per cent of Poles think that religion is not always the source of morality and people should follow their own conscience first. The results of a poll by the Warsaw-based CBOS polling agency reveal a significant decline of public trust regarding religion in Poland. The poll showed a significant increase in Poles who Read more
A senior Catholic priest has told the New South Wales inquiry on sex abuse that he was willing to break the law by not reporting allegations against paedophile priests. Father Brian Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops conference, said he would never betray the trust of a victim if they didn’t want Read more
Prayer should not center just on asking God to fulfill one’s hopes and desires, but must include praise, thanks and trust in God’s plan which may not match one’s own, Pope Benedict XVI said. The way Jesus prayed to his Father “teaches us that in our own prayers, we must always trust in the Father’s Read more