WelCom February 2018: Parliament’s Justice Committee is calling for submissions on David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill. The Bill seeks to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide in New Zealand. Submissions close midnight on February 2018. The Justice Committee will use the submissions to report back so that MPs are informed when voting at the Bill’s […]
WelCom February 2018: “Lent is the season that calls us to account for our ambassadorial duties.” Fr James Lyons Ambassadors are not chosen lightly and they are very aware of their privileged responsibility. They do their best to serve well the country they represent. The annual season of Lent opens with Ash Wednesday and the announcement […]
WelCom February 2018: Among the 2018 New Year honours recipients recognised for significant community contributions are well-known writer and children’s author Joy Cowley and Fr Barry Scannell sm for his role in saving Wellington’s much loved inner-city church, St Mary of the Angels. Joy Cowley receives top award Joy Cowley has joined the select group of […]
WelCom December 2017: Following New Zealand’s 2017 general election on Saturday 23 September 2017, WelCom’s editorial team published a letter in our October edition to the Prime Minister about our hopes for this country’s future, from a Catholic voter’s point of view. At that time we didn’t know who the incoming Prime Minister was. After her […]
WelCom November 2017: “Let us love, not with words but with deeds” – 2017 World Day of the Poor, theme The World Day of the Poor is a new celebration on the Catholic calendar. Pope Francis created it at the end of his 2015‒2016 Jubilee Year of Mercy. In the document concluding the Jubilee year, Misericordia […]
WelCom November 2017: In June this year, Cardinal John Dew and Bishop Mark Whitfield of the Lutheran Church of New Zealand led an ecumenical service at Sacred Heart Cathedral attended by Catholic, Lutherans and several other Christian denominations, formally opening the New Zealand dialogue between the Catholic and Lutheran Churches. On Sunday, 29 October, Cardinal […]
WelCom November 2017: At their recent meeting in Wellington, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops discussed Pope Francis’ Motu Proprio ‘Magnum Principium’ (the great principle), which lays out the procedure for preparing translations of liturgical texts from Latin into local languages. The Bishops released the following statement on 26 October 2017. During our recent meeting in Wellington, […]
WelCom November 2017: On St Francis Day, 4 October 2017, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand presented its fourth annual State of the Environment for Oceania report, Turning the Tide. Launched at Te Ngākau Tapu Church in Porirua, this year’s report focuses on our changing relationship with the ocean. It was observed that now is a moment in […]
WelCom October 2017: “The world in which we live, and which we are called to love and serve, even with its contradictions, demands that the Church strengthen cooperation in all areas of her mission. It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.” – Pope Francis A Church […]
WelCom October 2017: ‘All it takes is one good person to restore hope’ – Pope Francis The essence of Stewardship as Catholics is that we are all called to a life of holiness. Our Baptism calls us into a life with Christ and daily we are encouraged to reflect on what it means to be Christ’s […]