The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care recently announced it will investigate The Catholic and Anglican churches. It is also going to be carrying out a separate inquiry into Marylands a residential school for boys, many with learning disabilities. But other investigations into faith-based institutions are also going to be set up, as Read more
Family First New Zealand has won a battle over its charity status. In a decision released on Thursday morning, the Court of Appeal set aside a Charities Registration Board decision in 2017 to deregister Family First as a charity. “This decision is a win for the freedom of speech and belief in New Zealand,” says Read more
One of the outcomes of a Zoom meeting attended by more than 100 church reform advocates representing thousands of Catholics from Australia and New Zealand, was a call for the Australian bishops to appoint a woman as co-chairperson of the upcoming Plenary Council in that country. The Zoom meeting took place on July 16. Among Read more
South Auckland churches rallied together after more cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in the community. Last Friday, 11 new cases of COVID-19 were announced – nine linked to the community breakout and two were imported. Five of these cases were linked to churches in Auckland. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said 223 close contacts Read more
The Covid-19 lockdowns have resulted in a sharp rise in requests for support from the St Vincent de Paul Society across New Zealand. The response from volunteers and donors has been tremendous, says Marlena Hoeft-Marwick, National President of the St Vincent de Paul Society. “Some people have donated money, others have given food items and Read more
The Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand has welcomed the publication of details of the case study inquiry into the former Marylands School in Christchurch announced by the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. Marylands was a residential school for children with learning difficulties, run between the mid-1950s and 1984 by the Brothers Hospitallers of Read more
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand Limited (MCK) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Christchurch have announced that they have reached an agreement for the sale of MCK’s land at 776 Colombo Street, Christchurch, the site of the former Copthorne Hotel Christchurch Central. The terms of the sale are confidential to the parties and settlement Read more
An ordination to the priesthood and to the diaconate according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite will take place at St Benedict’s church in Newton, Auckland, in early October. NZ Catholic understands that Bishop Denis Browne, Emeritus Bishop of Hamilton, will ordain Deacon Roger Gilbride, FSSP, to the priesthood and Mr Brendan Boyce, Read more
ACT Party leader David Seymour raised the issue of the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the suicide rate during a speech in Parliament last week. Those involved in the sector said the numbers were greatly exaggerated. Provisional figures from the Chief Coroner, released last week, show the year-on-year suicide numbers down as well as a Read more
Last Sunday Dunedin’s Anglicans celebrated their Confirmation Eucharist in St Joseph’s Catholic cathedral after a fire damaged St Paul’s Anglican cathedral earlier in the week. Almost immediately after the fire, two Anglican inner-city churches – All Saints’ Dunedin North and St Matthew’s – reached out with offers for St Paul’s to join them for worship Read more