A mobile health clinic stopped in St Peter’s Square on Monday to provide nine hours of free heart and general check-ups for the poor and homeless who live near the Vatican. The clinic is part of an initiative called “The Streets of the Heart,” which is traveling around Italy to raise awareness about the prevention Read more
Experts are warning that development gains across the Pacific region over the past 10 years could be undone due to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. The aid organisation World Vision wants a once in a lifetime multi national effort to rebuild Pacific livelihoods that have been shattered by the pandemic. The Pacific Aftershock Report Read more
Hundreds of charities and community groups are struggling to meet multimillion-dollar revenue shortfalls as the impact of Covid lockdowns continue – according to new figures. A local initiative which offers $1m in funding to charities and community organisations has had applications for over six times the amount of available funds this year. New funding data Read more
Videophone evaluations are no way to assess someone for assisted suicide, critics have said, also warning that cost-based analyses which claim legal assisted suicide saves money show “callous indifference.” Some Scottish lawmakers are again advocating the legalization of assisted suicide and have now suggested that online consultations with doctors could help fulfil purported safeguard requirements. Read more
New figures show over two thirds of the children who have died in state care since Oranga Tamariki was established were Māori. Experts say this is due to an over-representation of Māori in state care. Information accessed by the Herald by an Official Information Act request shows 23 out of the 28 children who died Read more
The Vatican on Tuesday launched a website and smartphone app to help Catholics pray for the success of the two-year process culminating in the 2023 synod on synodality. At prayforthesynod.va, Catholics can find information in English, Spanish, and other languages about how to support the synod through prayer. “This website, together with the app Click Read more
Retired Pope Benedict XVI has said he hopes to soon join a beloved professor friend in “the afterlife,” in a sign that the 94-year-old pontiff is not only accepting his eventual death but welcoming it. Benedict penned an Oct 2 letter to a German priest, thanking him for letting him know of the passing of Read more
The ex-bishop of Rochester today claimed ‘no church is perfect’ as he defended his decision to convert to Catholicism. Michael Nazir-Ali, who was the Bishop of Rochester from 1994 until 2009, could be ordained as a priest as early as next month after spending ‘some years’ considering the change. It comes as the Roman church Read more
The General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, Reverend James Bhagwan, says its vital Pacific voices are heard at the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Glasgow which begins at the end of this month. The conference, also known as COP26, is billed as the most important climate meeting since Paris in 2015 when countries Read more
Pope Francis said on Saturday he realises some people, including within the Church, consider him to be “a pest” for defending the poor and most vulnerable, but that it won’t stop him as it is part of Christianity. “Thinking about these situations (of exclusion and inequality), I make a pest of myself with my questions. Read more