March 2016 Report Annette Scullion The Blessing of the Boats takes place on the second Sunday of February every year at Island Bay on Wellington’s South Coast. Local clergy bless a fleet of fishing boats and other sea-craft in this traditional ceremony to grant them ‘safe carriage and plentiful bounties’. The Blessing of the Boats […]
March 2016 Education The Teachers’ Commissioning Mass for teachers and staff of Catholic Schools in the Lower North Island areas of the Wellington Archdiocese was celebrated at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on 16 February 2016. Cardinal John Dew gave this homily. A reporter recently asked the question: ‘Why in your opinion, is humanity […]
March 2016 Obituary Simone Olsen, Communications Adviser for the New Zealand Catholic Bishops ‘It is with great sadness we heard today of the passing of Bishop Barry Jones,’ announced Cardinal John Dew, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, on Saturday 13 February 2016. ‘My brother Bishops and I would like to extend our […]
March 2016 Report At a Parliament reception to commemorate United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 26 January 2016, the Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Hon Christopher Finlayson QC gave the following speech. Shalom and welcome to Parliament. We are here because today is United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorated each year […]
March 2016 Reflection Cardinal John Dew I have recently been reading Pope Francis’ book, The Name of God is Mercy. Actually, it isn’t a book you read, it is more like a book you pray with, ponder on, meditate and reflect on the profound words of this amazing Pope we have been gifted with. I […]
March 2016 News Lesley Hooper, Director, Catholic Social Services, Wellington Over the last two months the team at Catholic Social Services has worked alongside the Anglican Diocese and Red Cross to prepare to welcome about 90 refugees – mainly from Syria – to their new homes in Wellington, Porirua and Lower Hutt. A call went […]
March 2016 News Crispin Anderlini and Emily Benefield, Caritas Aotearoa NZ Whole villages have been destroyed, thousands of people are sheltering in evacuation centres and a state of emergency has been declared in Fiji following Cyclone Winston – a Category 5 storm reported as the strongest to ever hit the Southern Hemisphere. Cyclone Winston reached […]
February 2016 Reflection Fr Tom Rouse, Columban Mission, Lower Hutt In the introductory paragraph to this final chapter of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis explains in undertaking the tasks and responsibilities of ecological education, that we face ‘a long path of renewal’ that will demand ‘the development of new convictions, attitudes and forms of life’ (202). […]
February 2016 Feature Anne Powell, Cenacle Sisters ‘Let us not look the other way’ – Pope Francis A formidable multi-billion-dollar human-trafficking industry has driven Catholic religious women to collaborate among themselves and with other social organisations to stop what Pope Francis has called ‘the most extensive form of slavery of the 21st century’. One of […]
Febuary 2016 Opinion Joe Grayland Pope Francis calls for us to be open and to be an engaging Church. To engage is to commit, not stand on the peripheries, to get below the surface to explore the depth in a relationship to be able to experience, better understand and live it more fully. Fr Joe […]