Schools March 2014 Dave Lamont On Thursday 13 February, St Benedict’s School held its first Mass of the year at St Benedict’s Church and the following day we went to Eastbourne Beach for our School Picnic. These two events are important parts of how we begin our school year as they bring our school and […]
Palmerston North March 2014 On Sunday 26 January, Bishop Charles Drennan commissioned 11 spiritual directors at a parish Mass in the cathedral. The 11 were among 14 invited to study the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to guide retreats in parishes throughout the diocese. They have been following the diocesan formation programme Nga Huarahi o te Wairua […]
Palmerston North March 2014 Shirley Knuckey Wel-Com regularly features through its obituaries memories of priests, religious and laity and their service – jubilees likewise. May I single out for special collective tribute those religious sisters who played a special part in our post-Vatican II history? Many of us were hugely privileged to be part of […]
Opinion March 2014 Fr Kevin Neal The days we’ve been having lately in the Manawatu have been glorious. The sun is shining brightly and people of every description are parading around town. Young and old wait patiently at the traffic lights in their small gangs. The older people have lists on their mind and they […]
News March 2014 A year of celebrations of St Brigid’s Parish began on 1 February, the feast day of its sixth century Irish patron. The Feilding parish turns 125. Although the first Catholic Church was built in Feilding in 1885 it was another four years before it became a separate parish. St Brigid’s has organised […]
Schools March 2014 Hāto Pāora College and St Joseph Māori Girls College have both opened the new academic year with rolls well up on last year. Hāto Pāora Principal Debbie Marshall-Lobb says the pōwhiri marking the new term was by far the largest in her time as principal and admissions of new boys were still […]
Feature March 2014 Fr Bernie O’Donnell On a dark Christmas Eve, 2013 a group of people met at the Tangiwai Memorial by the Whangaehu River to remember those who died tragically there 60 years earlier. The weather was similar to the light rain on that night in 1953 when the Wellington-Auckland Express train went into […]
World March 2014 Anne-Marie McCarten The St Vincent de Paul Society has asked members around the world to join in solidarity in the wake of the powerful typhoon that struck Tacloban, capital city of Leyte province, in the Central Philippines on 8 November 2013. International President General Dr Michael Thio, made the request on 13 […]
World March 2014 Cecily McNeill The story of Bethlehem University is one of peace in the face of severe restrictions. The vice-chancellor of the university, Br Peter Bray, told a gathering in Mt Victoria last month that, until 12 years ago, the 40-year-old university had students from Ramallah in the north of Jerusalem. ‘But since […]
Obituary March 2014 Wel-Com records with regret the passing of a valued colleague and friend Fr Brian O’Connell sm who, until recently, had been editor of the Marist Messenger, a role he took on in 2005. Fr Brian died peacefully in the Home of Compassion Silverstream on 13 January, after years of living with Motor […]