WelCom is the monthly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Wellington. Print copies of the eight-page newsletter are free and available in parishes, and sent to parishes and schools in PDF form. The archive contains WelCom stories published from 2007 to 2026 (May).
WelCom February 2020 Renewed by the Spirit Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis The Lent Appeal on behalf of the New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops Conference enables Caritas to continue working to heal and support those overcome by poverty and injustice around the world. Lent 2020: A Call to Renewal What does it mean to be renewed? […]
WelCom February 2020 The 2020 General Election will be held on Saturday 19 September along with the cannabis and end- of-life-choice referendums. Over the next few months WelCom aims to highlight some key issues for this year’s election including housing, poverty, health and education, mental health, human trafficking, refugees, and referenda on euthanasia and marijuana.
WelCom February 2020 Pope Francis has appointed Fr Michael Gielen from the Catholic Diocese of Hamilton as the new Auxiliary Bishop for Auckland. The appointment was announced in Rome at midnight New Zealand time, 7 January, 2020. Ordained as a priest in 1997, Bishop-elect Gielen served parishes in Gisborne, Hamilton and the western Bay of […]
WelCom February 2020 Integrated schools are considering legal action against the Government after being left out of the $396 million funding package to upgrade state school properties, announced November last year. Following the announcement, Paul Ferris, Chief Executive of the Association of Proprietors of Integrated Schools (APIS), said integrated schools were very disappointed to be […]
WelCom February 2020 Pope Francis issued on 17 December 2019 a declaration that the Catholic Church rule of ‘Pontifical Secrecy’ no longer applies in cases of the sexual abuse of minors and matters of child pornography. In a new ‘Instruction On the Confidentiality of Legal Proceedings’, the Pope ordered that ‘the person who files the […]
WelCom February 2020 Robert Oliver It has become a tradition at St Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington to celebrate Waitangi Day with a Mass in which the Choir joins with the parishioners of Te Ngākau Tapu in music from both ancient traditions. I had always been very affected by the way Māori spirituality […]
WelCom February 2020 Chris Duthie-Jung Pope Francis is calling for us all to rethink the way we go about evangelising in our respective communities. Under his leadership, the Church is specifically addressing issues of ministry with families, marriage and young people. This year, two agencies of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference ‒ The Catholic […]
WelCom February 2020 Following the tragic loss of life as a result of the volcanic eruption on Whakaari/White Island, on 9 December 2019, Bishop Patrick Dunn, Catholic Bishop of Auckland and President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, offered prayers on behalf of the Bishops. ‘Along with all New Zealanders we are deeply distressed […]
WelCom February 2020 Fr Tom Rouse This month, on Saturday 29 February, there will be a missioning Mass celebrated at Ss Peter and Paul Church of Johnsonville, Wellington, for the first two Columban lay missionaries to be assigned overseas from New Zealand. Sophia Ting and Hui Ling Chuah have completed a year of accompaniment and […]
WelCom February 2020 Mary-Ann Greaney Parishes everywhere are welcoming new members who come from other parts of the world to live and work in New Zealand. In the Archdiocese of Wellington, priests and seminarians newly arrived from overseas for a life of mission in Aotearoa-New Zealand, are welcomed to their new ‘home’ through a programme […]