A 40-year-old Vietnamese Dominican priest serving ethnic groups in Vietnam’s Central Highlands was killed while hearing confessions. Father Joseph Tran Ngoc Thanh was serving in Kontum Diocese where there is a relative lack of priests. The attack took place on Jan 29, shortly before the celebration of the Vespers Mass on Saturday evening at the Read more
Archbishop Michel Aupetit said on Friday he will stay on in his position as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, after receiving encouragement from Pope Francis. In an interview with Vatican News on Feb 4, Aupetit said Pope Francis “renewed his support for me” and again said he thought the former archbishop of Read more
The recently appointed Bishop of Auckland, Stephen Lowe, will move shortly to Auckland and take up his new role. Low will arrive in Auckland on 18 February and be welcomed at the Pompallier Centre then, on Saturday, at the Cathedral, he will be ‘shown his chair’ and installed at Bishop of Auckland. Normally an all-comers Read more
Scientists are using human stem cells to create a structure that mimics a pre-embryo and can serve as a research alternative to a real one. They say these “blastoids” provide an efficient, ethical way to study human development and pursue biomedical discoveries in fertility and contraception. The latest effort was detailed Thursday in the journal Read more
Wellington’s Pacific community has reached the 90 percent mark for first Covid-19 doses, as the region’s general population nears 90 per cent fully vaccinated. While the community is celebrating the milestone, the fact Pacific people have once again been left one step behind is not lost on the community and health leaders. As the country Read more
Pope Francis said Monday there were plans for a possible second meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, after their historic 2016 encounter in Cuba became a landmark in mending relations severed by the 1,000-year-old schism that divided Christianity. Francis said he planned to meet next week with the Russian church’s foreign envoy Read more
An Invercargill couple celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary believe they were lucky in love. Reaching a platinum anniversary would be a challenge for many couples, but for Lenox and Betty Allison it seemed to have been an easy task as they said had not noticed the time passing. “Honestly, it did not seem that long. Read more
The French president has slammed ‘woke nonsense’ and said the European Commission needs to focus its efforts on ‘recovery, power and belonging’. Emmanuel Macron said he does not ‘totally adhere’ to Eurocrats explaining the words ‘people can and can’t use’ just a week after Brussels withdrew its controversial guidelines for inclusive communication. The document details Read more
A group of Catholics have urged the Conference of Religious India (CRI) to investigate the recent suicide of Sister Mary Mercy, a member of the Franciscan Immaculate Sisters. A letter signed by senior nuns, theologians and laywomen said it would be helpful to “find out what needs to be done in order to prevent the Read more
The Pope’s donation of an oxygen production plant to St Raphael Hospital in Baghdad has been indispensable for treating patients during the Covid-19 health emergency. With a Rite of Blessing on Tuesday, St Raphael Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, formally inaugurated an oxygen production plant, capable of generating medical oxygen. The machine is a donation by Read more