Small groups of health professionals and teachers challenging the Government’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate have lost a bid for an exceptional appeal direct to the Supreme Court. New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science (NZDSOS) and its related group for teachers (NZTSOS) lost the first part of their case in the High Court earlier this month. Read more
Archbishop Eamon Martin has launched the 2021 interactive digital Advent Calendar, which will go live on on the first Sunday of Advent, 28 November. Now in its eighth year, the unique digital Advent Calendar offers resources for the parish, school and for families which can be accessed behind a virtual door each day during the Read more
For the 12-year-old student at St Francis of Assisi School, wearing a favorite old tee shirt with a gay pride message on “Dress Down Day” was nothing new. She had worn it before on relaxed-dress-code days with no problem, she told The Brew. But this past Friday, at the end of the mass that she Read more
According to newly published data from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the number of hate crimes against Christians in Europe rose sharply in 2020. The OSCE data, published Nov 16, documented 980 incidents against Christians, including arson attacks on Catholic churches, desecration and robbery of Eucharistic hosts, assaults on priests, and anti-Catholic Read more
A group monitoring the work of the Abuse in Care inquiry is calling on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) to apologise to survivors of abuse at Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit in the 1970s. The Royal Commission Forum says the College colluded and was complicit in the abuse of Read more
The director of Caritas Poland said on Thursday that the charity will continue to help those in need for as long as the Belarus border crisis lasts. Speaking at a press conference in Podlipki, northeastern Poland, on Nov 18, Fr Marcin Iżycki stressed that the charity was also attentive to the needs of the local Read more
Another of Lawrence’s historic churches, St Patrick’s, is to be sold, in what has been described as a ‘‘wrench’’ for parishioners. St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Lawrence parish chairman Geoff Blackmore informed the Otago Daily Times of the decision this week, drawing to a close a process that began in December last year. At that time, Read more
The leader of a Philippines-based church was charged with having sex with women and underage girls who faced threats of abuse and “eternal damnation” unless they catered to the self-proclaimed “son of God,” federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Apollo Carreon Quiboloy and two of his top administrators are among nine people named in a superseding indictment Read more
Prince Edward delivered Her Majesty’s speech to bishops and clergy at the General Synod after she cancelled her appearance last week following medical advice for her to rest. Before the address, the Earl of Wessex said the monarch sent her “sincere and deep apologies that she cannot be here today”. “I think you probably understand Read more
The head of the Catholic diocese in Cairns has heavily criticised parishioners spreading coronavirus vaccine myths, labelling them divisive and ignorant. Bishop James Foley this morning said that people within his church were “campaigning against vaccination on all sorts of ill-founded prejudice”. Among the misinformation Bishop Foley said he had received were claims coronavirus vaccines Read more