Cecily McNeill2012 An Otago University study published in international medical journal The Lancet has revealed that hospital admissions for infectious diseases in this country rose by more than half in the nearly 20 years to 2008 and a top scientist is blaming damp housing, poverty and a lack of primary healthcare. Fairfax NZ News reported […]
Archbishop John Dew2012 One of the new Lenten Prefaces we will hear in the new Missal just implemented, prays, ‘You have given your children a sacred time for the renewing and purifying of their hearts – so that they may deal with the things of this passing world and hold rather to the things that […]
Columns Kieran Fenn FMS2012 At the second Vatican council, two patterns of approach to Mary came into conflict and the first millennium won as the pattern for the third Christian millennium. Let us examine the two in more detail. Of the 2,500 bishops at the Council, 600 asked for a specific statement from the Council […]
Columns Msgr John Broadbent2012 St Nicholas was born near Sachselin in Unterwalden in 1417. It is said of him that ‘no religious figure in the history of Switzerland has given rise to so varied and voluminous a body of literature’. From a farming family, Nicholas’ father also held a civil post in the canton. His […]
Columns Kieran Fenn fms2012 Among the new factors emerging in the Church of the second millennium was a growing legal system within church bureaucracy, an increasingly severe penitential system and a growing remoteness from the risen Christ as a saving figure who now became a stern and just judge. Eternal salvation was regarded as exceedingly […]
Columns Msgr John Broadbent2012 St Peter Chanel was born at Cuet near Billey in France in 1803. At seven he began shepherding sheep on his father’s farm. But his disposition and intelligence attracted the attention of the parish priest who brought him to a small school he had started in post-revolutionary France. From there, Peter […]
Columns Kieran Fenn fmsMay 2012 No text could satisfy both sides of the council discussion. The group that saw Mary as a type of Christ continued to define her as mediatrix or, at least, as mother of the church. The title of the chapter on Mary shows the compromise, ‘The Role of the Blessed Virgin […]
Cecily McNeill2012 Almost doubling the period of paid parental leave as Labour MP Sue Moroney’s bill promises could in time improve this country’s poor performance with children. An international trade union conference on maternity protection in Singapore last month has adopted the extension of paid parental leave to 26 weeks as a priority for the […]
Cecily McNeillMay 2012 When it became known that Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui was in prison for more than a year without charge, there was a clamour for his immediate release. Zaoui had the misfortune to arrive in New Zealand as western countries were tightening their borders against terrorists 15 months after the 9/11 attacks. The […]
Columns Fr Kevin Neal2012 About once a month, I usually make a quick run through to Napier to catch up with my friends the Frechtlings and to quite often enjoy some sun. Last summer this last part wasn’t quite true since it seemed to be always raining, but that is the exception, I hope! Whatever […]