WelCom September 2020 Ko Maria, te Whāea o te Ora Many feasts and memorials honouring Mary are celebrated in August, September and October: August 15, the feast of the Assumption, the national feast day of Aotearoa New Zealand; the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 22 August; the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed […]
WelCom August 2020 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Day of Obligation. Patronal Feast of Aotearoa New Zealand. Treading the Footsteps of Mary Fr James Lyons Hail Mary full of grace, The Lord is with you… . These words announced the beginning of a life-change for a young Hebrew girl that would impact […]
WelCom August 2020 Neil Vaney SM Watching thousands of marchers all over the world yelling against the oppression of people of colour [following the death of George Floyd on 25 May while in police custody in Minneapolis], it was easy to feel moments of hope and optimism. After the race riots of the 1960s and the economic […]
WelCom July 2020: Monsignor Gerard Burns How did you experience the Coronavirus lockdowns? Was it positive, was it difficult, what happened to you? In the last few months because of the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown in New Zealand we have tried to be part of a national solidarity to stop the spread of the […]
WelCom July 2020: A message from Chris McLeod, National Aboriginal Bishop, Archdiocese of Adelaide, Australia. ‘The Week of Prayer for Reconciliation’ (The National week for Reconciliation) did not go quite as we planned. Not long after it commenced we were all, I am sure, appalled by the death of George Floyd in America. It seemed […]
WelCom July 2020: This article appeared in the National Catholic Reporter, USA, June 13, 2020, and has been reprinted in WelCom with permission of National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company. NCRonline.org Dr Alexander Mikulich PhD is a Catholic social ethicist. A man was lynched yesterday. The NAACP raised this sign from its Fifth Avenue office in […]
WelCom June 2020: Palmerston North Diocese priest and theologian, Joe Grayland, offers an opinion about the place of ‘Electronic Eucharist’ within the liturgy. Virtual Mass and post-Vatican II liturgical reform A vast amount of material was produced during the liturgical lockdown. Many of the ‘liturgical responses’ have been creative, some enlightened and some abuse of […]
WelCom June 2020: Dr John Kleinsman, Director of the New Zealand, Catholic Bioethics Centre It is generally accepted that a Covid-19 vaccine provides the best possibility of an ‘exit strategy’ from the pandemic. Many companies around the world are currently working to produce such a vaccine. Human vaccines are typically developed using cell cultures developed […]
WelCom June 2020: Florence Nightingale is a role model for all people seeking to minister to their communities during the Covid-19 pandemic, say the New Zealand Faith Community Nurses Association (NZFCNA). 2020 has been designated by the World Health Organisation as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife in honour of the 200th birth […]
WelCom June 2020: Will the hum drum of before,deafen the call to freedom and life?All we have seen,all we know and understand,what will it take to wake up and change,from plunder, slavery, division, squander and harm? The earth has sent a message.A subtle nudge to say change.Does the earth need to shout, to explode with full […]