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).
Two Wellington Catholic primary schools are facing potential closure because of growing financial pressures in maintaining the schools and stagnant population growth in the capital.
The Archdiocese’s General Manager, Reuben Norris, and Vicar for Education and Director of Catholic Schools Education Services, Kelly Ross, recently met with parents of children at the two schools. They have issued the statement in the panel below.
A rare military flag has received much needed conservation work from the Carmelite Sisters at Christ The King Monastery in Christchurch. The flag is the Regimental Guidon of the 9th Wellington East Coast Mounted Rifles of WWI and is paraded by Queen Alexandra’s Mounted Rifles (QAMR) based at Linton Military Camp, near Palmerston North.
An independent assessment of Catholic safeguarding protocols and procedures in New Zealand has identified significant progress in many areas, while also highlighting where more work is needed.
Around the world, bishops together with the Catholic faithful of their dioceses in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa have been gearing up for the second session of the 2021–2024 Synod on Synodality to take place 2–27 October in Vatican City.
Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard of Digne, the Holy See’s special representative for the 2024 Paris Olympics, was the representatives of the five major religions involved in the Paris Olympics, at a significant interfaith ceremony held on Sunday 4 August outside Notre-Dame Cathedral, to highlight a message of universal fraternity.
The bronze bell used for track and field competitions during the Paris Olympic Games will ring during every Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral when it reopens in December.
The Church in South Korea has officially set the stage for World Youth Day 2027 with a launch event at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul.
Under the theme ‘Hope Ignites in Seoul. Success for WYD Seoul 2027’, the ceremony, held on Sunday 28 July, marked the beginning of preparations for the highly anticipated international gathering.
September will be a busy month for Pope Francis, and for the faithful of the four countries preparing to welcome him as he visits them on his 45th Apostolic Journey abroad: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore. The Pope will be visiting the four countries over a period of less than two weeks.
When Pope Francis visits Papua New Guinea in September, Fr Mario Abzalón Alvarado Tovar, the Superior General of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, says the Holy Father will find a Church with a strong practice of faith, but in the style of Papua New Guinea.
Pope Francis met with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, last month at the Vatican to discuss climate change. The meeting was at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Pope’s residence.