WelCom April 2019: The Catholic Church in New Zealand’s National Office of Professional Standards (NOPS) has launched a new website (https://safeguarding.catholic.org.nz/). NOPS Director, Virginia Noonan, says, ‘This provides another channel for reporting abuse and information on safeguarding in the Church, including policies and protocols for this work. The site has downloadable guidelines, policies and standards for […]
WelCom April 2019: In his Letter to the People of God, 20 August last year, Pope Francis wrote to all Catholics about the crises within the Church and of the deep wounds and pain caused to victims of sexual abuse. Pope Francis calls on us to bring about change, a ‘conversion’ within the Church, and to […]
WelCom April 2019: On 5 March, Cardinal George Pell, 77, was sentenced to a maximum of six years in prison, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months. He was convicted of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys after Sunday Mass in the 1990s. One of them, ‘J’, is now aged in his 30s and […]
WelCom April 2019: Following news of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction in February this year, the Vatican confirmed it is investigating the disgraced cardinal over child sexual offences committed in Australia. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will handle the case, which could see Cardinal Pell defrocked. A Vatican analyst said it was a sign […]
WelCom April 2019: Following the news of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction late February, the Most Rev Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv, Bishop of Parramatta, issued the following pastoral letter on 1 March 2019. Dear friends, The news concerning Cardinal George Pell and his conviction and incarceration on historic child sexual abuse crimes has dominated local […]
WelCom April 2019: The Vatican sexual abuse summit – the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church – was a four-day summit meeting attended by almost 200 Church leaders from around the world, held in Vatican City from 21 to 24 February 2019. The decades-long sexual abuse scandal has erupted in various parts of […]
WelCom April 2019: Our Catholic Thinking articles about theology, morality, ethics and faith heritage, are written for WelCom by lecturers from New Zealand’s Catholic Tertiary Education Providers: Good Shepherd College – Te Hēpara Pai; and The Catholic Institute of New Zealand (TCI) – Te Pūtahi Katorika ki Aotearoa. Dr Christopher E Longhurst, TCI lecturer, revisits Catholic […]
WelCom April 2019: Dr Elizabeth Julian rsm Last month I suggested that the Old Testament was really the story of God’s love affair with a particular group of people. This month we will consider the Old Testament as a library rather than a book, as well as some of the other names we use to describe […]
WelCom April 2019: John 8: 1-11 1 And Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her […]
WelCom March 2019: Pope Francis summit on ‘The Protection of Minors in the Church’ held at the Vatican, 21 –24 February 2019, was in response to his deep concerns to ‘a global problem can only be resolved with a global response’. The Holy Father opened the meeting with a challenge to the 200 Church leaders gathered […]