WelCom May 2020: A Pentecost Reflection for Sunday 31 May 2020 Fr James Lyon Rituals, togetherness and routine. These were among the first things that went missing when we fell victim to Covid-19. We were different without them, and rightly so, for they are the cultural markers that give identity and security in any society. […]
WelCom May 2020: Te mate urutā kikino rawa kua hopukia a hitōria nei Michael Fitzsimons looks at some of the ways that the Catholic community responded to the devastating Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918. The Spanish Flu is estimated to have infected up to 40 per cent of the world’s population and to have killed […]
WelCom May 2020: The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated in New Zealand between Ascension and Pentecost Sundays each year (25–31 May this year). In the Northern Hemisphere it is celebrated in January. The Week of Prayer began as a Catholic observance in 1908 and in the 1920s other Christian churches began their […]
WelCom May 2020: This year is the fifth anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical on integral human ecology – Laudato si’, on Care for Our Common Home. The Pope released a video message on 3 March 2020 inviting Catholics worldwide to take part in a week, 16–24 May, dedicated to promoting the message […]
WelCom May 2020: The latest issue of The Nathaniel Report – the magazine of the Nathaniel Centre, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ bioethics centre, published three times a year – includes articles about this year’s general election referendum, on whether or not to legalise recreational cannabis. The following is a synthesis of an article written […]
WelCom May 2020: Deacon Danny Karatea-Goddard With the support of the Māori Apostolate of the Diocese of Palmerston North and subtribe of Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore of Te Hiiri marae, I was ordained deacon on the weekend of Pentecost 2014 by Bishop Charles Drennan. My family and I were received back into the Archdiocese of Wellington in […]
Due to Covid-19, WelCom is currently not being printed or distributed to parishes and schools. The April 2020 issue of WelCom is available online here.
WelCom April 2020: On 11 March, 2020, Pope Francis visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love, outside of Rome. While there the Holy Father entrusted Rome and all Italy to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s help and protection. He did this of course as the coronavirus pandemic gathered pace in Italy. Various Popes had prayed […]
WelCom April 2020: New church and parish centre created Ngā mihi nui ki te Pāriha o tō tātou Kahurangi o Kāpiti Kua hangaia tētehi whare karakia me tētehi Huimanga Pāriha hōu When Cardinal John Dew, Archbishop of Wellington, called for our parishes to ‘build a future full of hope that builds on the past’, Our […]
WelCom April 2020: A King’s Call to Prayer Anzac Day 25 April 2020 Brian Fennessy Two recently produced war-drama movies, Darkest Hour and Dunkirk, both released in 2017, were able to re-ignite peoples’ awareness of the desperate situation that Britain and her allies, including New Zealand, faced during 1940 in World War II. The two […]