WelCom August 2019: WelCom’s Catholic Thinking article this month is by Professor Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology, University of Nottingham, UK. Professor O’Loughlin has held the Chair of Historical Theology at the University for ten years and is a priest of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on England’s south coast. Professor O’Loughlin spoke at […]
WelCom August 2019: Bishop Charles Drennan, Bishop of Palmerston North Schools generate passionate discussion. Every student and parent, every community, and every society has a vested interest in education. The Church is the largest single provider of schooling in the world. The country with the most children in Catholic schools isn’t Brazil or Poland or France. It’s […]
WelCom August 2019: Lyndsay Freer Tim Duckworth sm has been elected to become New Zealand Provincial of the Society of Mary, to take office in early 2020. He succeeds David Kennerley sm, who will have served two, three-year terms as Provincial. In his 37 years of priesthood, Tim has served the Society of Mary and the […]
WelCom August 2019: Donor Support Critical for Refugees’ Safety, Protection Amanda Gregan Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is launching an appeal this month to assist Caritas Bangladesh in their efforts to support thousands, affected by the Rohingya conflict, forced to flee Myanmar to refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. Over 900,000 Rohingya, an ethnic and religious minority people […]
WelCom August 2019: Government plans to liberalise abortion laws are weeks away, not months, according to Justice Minister Andrew Little Andrew Little. Abortion is currently included in the Crimes Act, making it officially illegal. A bill that would remove abortion from the Crimes Act went before Cabinet ministers on Tuesday, 23 July 2019, for final approval. […]
WelCom August 2019: Annette Scullion Parishioners in the Palmerston North Diocese and others around the country were treated to an insight about discipleship and ‘learning as Christians by doing’, by visiting historical theologian, Professor Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology, University of Nottingham, UK. Professor O’Loughlin was in New Zealand in July as one of three […]
WelCom August 2019: Bishop Vincent Long of Paramatta Diocese, Australia, issued the following statement on 19 July 2019, the 6th anniversary of Australia’s mandatory and indefinite offshore detention policy. As a bishop and a former boat person, I deplore the detention of our brothers and sisters on Nauru and Manus Island. This weekend marked the sixth […]
WelCom August 2019: In a hand-delivered letter last month, Pope Francis told Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad that, among other things, he is deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in northern Syria’s Idlib region, which has been the target of Russian-backed airstrikes since April. He also asked for the safe return of the millions of people displaced […]
WelCom August 2019: After current supplies run out, Vatican City State will stop selling single-use plastic items. While the European Union pledged in May to ban single-use plastic from 2021, the Vatican had already begun limiting its use and soon ‘it will no longer be sold,’ said Rafael Ignacio Tornini, head of the department handling Vatican […]
WelCom August 2019: This month we visit St Joseph’s Parish of Hawera, which connects the townships of Hawera, Manaia and Normanby, and surrounding farming and coastal areas. Hawera, South Taranaki’s largest town, is 71 kms south of New Plymouth on State Highway 3 and is located on State Highway 45, known as Surf Highway 45 for […]