It is hard to imagine 2,300 or more bishops from almost every country. Among them some outstanding men like Bishop Paul Etoga, Bishop of Mbalmayo in the Cameroons, who had just scraped up enough money to take a boat to Le Havre in France, hitchhike to Paris, and buy a cheap rail ticket to Rome with his fellow African Bishop Joseph Busimba of the Congo, who arrived at Fiumicino Airport with three elephant tusks as a gift for the Pope.
Three men who have been acquitted on charges of breaking into and damaging the United States satellite base at Waihopai are now calling for the base to be closed down.
This month as we begin the Lenten road through sacrifice and suffering towards the Easter celebration of Christ’s glorious resurrection, there are several examples of suffering to illustrate the gulf between the reign of God that Jesus preached and the reality of life in this sometimes greedy and punitive world.
Christian priesthood replaced the priesthood of Israel only when the Eucharist came to be understood as a bloodless sacrifice that replaced the blood sacrifices of the Temple.
The Māori community of the archdiocese presented Msgr Gerard Burns, their chaplain for the past three years, with a korowai or Māori cloak, a mark of respect for his 25 years of priesthood.