Category: Uncategorized

Creed and credibility in a critical age

‘It seemed Pope John Paul II was challenging us to refocus our thinking and our teaching. If not, why did he keep coming back to the same point?’
The Challenge of John Paul II was
‘to look more deeply at the human being, whom Christ has saved i

Read more

The kingdom of God is between us, not above or in us

In the philosophical environment in which we live there is a conflict not between morality and immorality but between two competing moralities.
Dr John Owens, who is a priest of the Society of Mary and lectures in philosophy at Good Shepherd College

Read more

The many dimensions of credibility

The Church is most credible when it is a listening church, engaging in dialogue and allowing society to see the face of Jesus.
The bishops’ conference secretary, Anne Dickinson, told the colloquium this was evident in the work of the Sisters of Com

Read more

Bio-ethics and a truly human society

The idea of producing ‘perfect’ children through genetic modification or being able to demand that an elderly person who is no longer seen as productive in society be helped to die is appalling, says Dr Anna Holmes.
Dr Holmes has worked as a medical

Read more

Sexuality in global perspective

The question of why so few young Catholics show a vibrant faith life once they leave school is rooted in an overwhelming focus on individual rather than collective morality.
Dr Neil Vaney sm who teaches moral theology at the National Theological Coll

Read more

The Treaty of Waitangi – a great taonga

Archdiocesan pastoral ministry adviser, Sr Pesio Iosefo SMSM, gave the following talk to the Good Shepherd parish, Balmoral, Auckland at the end of Social Justice Week, Sunday 18 September. She has called her talk: ‘how I understand the Treaty relationshi

Read more

Changing behaviour to control a killer

Irish missionary, Sr Miriam Duggan, told a gathering in Sacred Heart Cathedral last month of how a behaviour change programme based on abstinence has turned the fortunes of AIDS victims in Uganda.
About 80 people turned out in Wellington on 26 Septem

Read more

Pupils decide what they want in a priest

In a class project, the pupils at St Anthony’s Pahiatua, drew up what qualities they would want in a parish priest.
They then asked their parish priest about his life, his interests, what he did in his spare time etc.
The information was collat

Read more