Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, recently declared that any women who was ordained, and the men who ordained them, would be excommunicated from the church. However, a couple of women ordained Catholic priests in our area say the Pope’s revision of papal law is irrelevant to what is really happening in Read more
An Australian court on Friday ordered a dozen media firms to pay a total of A$1.1 million ($842,000) in fines for breaching a suppression order on reporting the conviction, since overturned, of former Vatican treasurer George Pell for child sexual assault. The 12 media outlets, mostly owned by Nine Entertainment Co and Rupert Murdoch’s News Read more
Homes with damp carpets and mouldy curtains and draughty windows, bedrooms below 10 degrees Celsius, and families sleeping in the lounge to stay warm are all too common, a healthy housing advocate says. Sustainability Options co-owner Nik Gregg said people Kiwis were a hardy people who had grown to accept that being a nation of Read more
The Rev. James Altman calls himself “a lowly priest” serving a blue-collar city in western Wisconsin. But when his bishop demanded his resignation – after a series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic – Altman refused to oblige and has since raised more than $640,000 from his conservative supporters to defend himself. While Read more
After more than 17 years at St Kevin’s College, Paul Olsen might be leaving but he isn’t going far. After 11 years as principal of Oamaru’s Catholic secondary school, Mr Olsen announced yesterday he would be stepping down at the end of the year, to take up a role as manager of the Catholic Education Read more
Cardinal George Pell turned 80 years old on Tuesday, losing his eligibility to vote in a future papal conclave. The Australian was made a cardinal by St. Pope John Paul II in October 2003, while he was archbishop of Sydney. Ten years later, Pope Francis appointed Pell a member of his Council of Cardinals, and Read more
Pope Francis on Wednesday encouraged busy Catholics to say the “Jesus Prayer” throughout the day. Speaking at the general audience June 9, the pope recommended the short prayer at the heart of Eastern Christianity’s mystical tradition. Referring to the 19th-century Russian spiritual classic “The Way of a Pilgrim,” he said: “The spiritual journey of the Read more
The president of the European Commission has paid tribute to Europe’s Christian roots after weekend talks with the Pope, praising the Catholic Church’s role in fostering peace and reconciliation across the continent. “Christianity is deeply rooted in Europe – in our daily actions, we perceive their origin in Christian values,” Ursula von der Leyen, a Read more
A new charity in Christchurch is building homes with a purpose – it is aiming to donate the profit from sales to local charities supporting disadvantaged youth. The initiative is the brainchild of Cole Askew who is a director of family-led house building company, Freedom Built. Wanting to raise funds to give back to the Read more
Back in 2018, award-winning Italian journalist Paolo Ruffini broke a glass ceiling in the Vatican by becoming the first lay person to be named head of a Vatican dicastery. Ruffini was tapped to run the newly created department for communications, which brought together nine previously independent operations. Originally established as the Secretariat for Communication in Read more