WelCom September 2018: Sue Seconi Thirty St Mary’s parishioners from Whanganui travelled to the South Taranaki town of Patea to join St Patrick’s parishioners to celebrate with Fr John Roberts his 40th ordination anniversary to the day. Fr John was rostered on the 9.30am Mass on Sunday 19 August 2018. ‘If given the choice to do […]
WelCom September 2018: Catherine Gibbs The bell in the historic church tower rang out over the Pāuatahanui hillsides on Sunday 27 May. It proclaimed to the 60-strong crowd inside this day marked an important act of solidarity by honouring families connected through time and space. St Theresa’s parish Plimmerton is responsible for the maintenance and use […]
WelCom September 2018: Hundreds of churches of all denominations nationwide will unite in prayer on Sunday 9 September for the people who make up New Zealand’s mass media. Phil Guyan, CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Association said since Media Prayer Day began in 2000, it has had the support of all Christian denominations in New Zealand. […]
WelCom September 2018: Mary Nash, Manawatu Reuniting Refugee Families Trust Mr Wahidi and Mrs Wahidi arrived in Palmerston North with their two preschool children in June this year – tired but safe and sound. They had flown from Kabul to Auckland via Delhi to join Mr Wahidi’s sister, Shugofa. As a former refugee, Shugofa had applied to […]
WelCom September 2018: A meeting was held recently at St Peter and Paul’s Church Lower Hutt with information about human trafficking. Br Kevin Dobbin fms reports. There’s no slavery in New Zealand. Abraham Lincoln and Wilberforce dealt with that issue long ago! Yeah, right! Such a statement of history is the kind trumped up by one […]
WelCom September 2018: No room at the inn. Those words are carved deep in our Christian sensibility. Over the centuries, we have imagined a heartless landlord turning away a woman in labour, and her anxious husband; but the reality was probably a bit different. It was census time, and Bethlehem would have been crowded. Inns were […]
WelCom September 2018: The Catholic practice of ‘going on retreat’ is as old as Christianity itself. Jesus’ forty days in the desert after his baptism by John has inspired many over the ages. Today retreats for lay people usually involve a day, a weekend or longer away from home and familiar routines. Usually under the direction […]
WelCom September 2018: Dr John Kleinsman, Director, The New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre In March 2018, the Justice Committee announced more than 35,000 unique submissions were received on David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill; unprecedented for a Select Committee in the history of our parliament. The Committee will report its findings to parliament in March 2019. […]
WelCom September 2018: Opinion Fr James Lyons In the ongoing debate surrounding our Parliament’s End of Life Choice Bill, there is a rising tide of rhetoric that threatens to swamp the deeper issues regarding the Bill’s purpose and motivation. The purpose of the Bill is to enable a person with ‘terminal illness or a grievous and […]
WelCom September 2018: WelCom’s ‘Catholic Thinking’ articles are about theology, mortality, ethics and faith heritage by lecturers from Good Shepherd College – Te Hēpara Pei and The Catholic Institute of Aotearoa New Zealand – Te Pūtahi Katorika ki Aotearoa. This month, Lyn Smith, Head of Religious Education and the National Centre for Religious Studies, TCI, Auckland, […]