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).
Following the Journey of the WYD Cross and Icon through the Wellington Archdiocese towards the end of June, the precious symbols of young Catholicism gifted to the youth of the world by Pope John Paul II in 1982, moved north.
The archdiocese’s newest school, Garin College in Nelson, has already gained a reputation for innovation, and sound Catholic education in its short life. For 20 years there had been no Catholic secondary school in the southern half of the Wellington diocese ‘¬ø¬Ω’ so Garin College, like its namesake Father Antoine Garin, was built to serve the northern part of the South Island.
Sacred Heart College, Napier, used its Stage Challenge performance to focus on the different cultural groups which make up New Zealand. The college’s group battled tough competition in the region for a third placing in the May performance.
6 August 2007 Dear Fr Tom At the clergy luncheon, hosted for you by Archbishop John on 8 June, you told some of us that leaving New Zealand after 45 years was as hard as leaving Ireland for the first time. I can understand that. It is hard for us to let you go. You […]
It strikes me that it is hard to escape the fact that the term ‘lay’ has pejorative overtones; he or she is ‘just’ a lay person. Consider also the following dictionary definitions: A lay-by is a portion of road widened to permit a vehicle to stop without interfering with the main flow of traffic; a lay shaft is a secondary shaft of a machine not forming part of the main system of power-transmission; a lay figure is ‘a jointed wooden figure for arranging drapery on etc; unimportant person, nonentity;
Barbara Rowley of St Bernadette’s Parish, Naenae, is celebrating her first year of officially being appointed as lay pastoral leader working in relationship with St Michael’s Parish, Taita. Barbara partially agrees with John Kleinsman (Getting to know the lay of the land) on the negative connotations of the word ‘lay’ but, she says, these are changing as more people become involved in the church.
Today’s gospel reading draws attention to a subject dear to many hearts over the past month’”economic survival or profit. As I write (31 July) senior hospital specialists are negotiating with their employers for more attractive pay and conditions to stop an exodus of doctors across the Tasman.
On 15 August we celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to heaven. Sr Elizabeth Julian ponders the implications of this bodily assumption.
The paper: Religion, Ethics and Law in a Secular Society, extended the knowledge of the six Year 13s from St Mary’s College, into the fields of philosophy, theology, ethics, and politics and introduced them to a range of great thinkers such as Descartes, Sartre, Rousseau, Hobbes, Newbigin and O’Donovan.