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).
Feature March 2014 Fr Bernie O’Donnell On a dark Christmas Eve, 2013 a group of people met at the Tangiwai Memorial by the Whangaehu River to remember those who died tragically there 60 years earlier. The weather was similar to the light rain on that night in 1953 when the Wellington-Auckland Express train went into […]
World March 2014 Anne-Marie McCarten The St Vincent de Paul Society has asked members around the world to join in solidarity in the wake of the powerful typhoon that struck Tacloban, capital city of Leyte province, in the Central Philippines on 8 November 2013. International President General Dr Michael Thio, made the request on 13 […]
World March 2014 Cecily McNeill The story of Bethlehem University is one of peace in the face of severe restrictions. The vice-chancellor of the university, Br Peter Bray, told a gathering in Mt Victoria last month that, until 12 years ago, the 40-year-old university had students from Ramallah in the north of Jerusalem. ‘But since […]
Obituary March 2014 Wel-Com records with regret the passing of a valued colleague and friend Fr Brian O’Connell sm who, until recently, had been editor of the Marist Messenger, a role he took on in 2005. Fr Brian died peacefully in the Home of Compassion Silverstream on 13 January, after years of living with Motor […]
Feature March 2014 John O’Neill sm The number of people in the Wellington region who ticked the ‘no religion’ box in the 2013 Census rose by 15 percent in the seven years since the previous census. At the same time the number who said in the census that they were Catholic declined by six percent […]
Palmerston North March 2014 Kathleen Field The Young Catholic Leader programme in the Diocese of Palmerston North continues to grow in popularity and diversity. Begun in the diocese in 2011 with 29 Year 12 students from Catholic colleges, it has grown to 52 young people at last December’s camp, five of whom were from nonCatholic […]
News February 2014 Mary-Ann Greaney Dynamic ministry teams with priests and lay leaders working together could be the result of the archdiocesan restructuring now taking place following extensive parish consultations last year based on the document A Future Full of Hope. When Bishop John Dew was installed as archbishop in 2005 he knew he couldn’t […]
Opinion February 2014 Archbishop John Dew Another year has begun. I hear many people saying that the holiday season has gone too quickly and we are back into the rush, the hustle and bustle and I am no different. It has not taken me long to forget the still moments, the times of peace and […]
Opinion February 2014 Cecily McNeill The genealogy which starts the Gospel of Matthew is important in locating Jesus as descendant of Abraham and the rightful heir to David’s throne, that is, the Messiah. In the same way, our forebears in Aotearoa New Zealand who signed the Treaty of Waitangi are located in a much more […]
Scripture February 2014 Kieran Fenn fms Pope Paul VI said in 1975 that devotion to Mary for many in the church was a problem. Our approach to Mary reflected outdated ideas of the medieval and Counter-Reformation church, which lack appeal for contemporary people. He cited some theology that presents Mary as timidly submissive which, he […]