The archbishop of Suva, Peter Chong, has called on Catholic teachers to be creative in their teaching skills so students can enjoy learning. He said one of the effective ways to teach children today was to make use of visual media. “That is the culture we are living today. The children of today are ‘screen Read more
A New Zealand Catholic church worker, providing legal advice to landowners, has deported from Papua New Guinea. Despite a court order staying his deportation, Douglas Tennent was forced to leave PNG on Monday after being told on Friday by immigration officials he was abusing the conditions of his religious worker visa. Now back in New Read more
The annual Asian and Pacific Island Catholics Marian Pilgrimage to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC took place last month. About 1,000 people from 20 groups representing different communities within Asia and the Pacific Islands participated in the Mass in honour of Mary. The various communities marched into Read more
An Australian academic has suggested that one reason for the failure interventions for climate change adaptation in Pacific Island communities by external aid agencies is the wholly secular nature of their messages. Patrick D Nunn is Professor of Geography at the Australian Centre for Pacific Island Research and Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast. Read more
The move by Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the Paris Accord is a grave moral injustice say a group of Pacific Island civil society organisations under the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN) They say his decision is a clear sign of his continued support of the fossil fuel industry which Read more
Last week schools that are part of the Marist Brothers family marked the bicentennial of the founding of Marist Brothers and the 80th anniversary of the establishment of Marist Brothers High School. On Friday, the archbishop of Suva, Peter Loy Chong was accorded a traditional welcoming ceremony in front of a crowd of over 800 Read more
What began as a student film project finally had its Australian home premiere at the Human Rights Film Festival last month. It has also been screened at the DocEdge film festivals in Wellington and Auckland. Hollie Fifer’s film The Opposition won the Grand Prize at the International Pacific Documentary Film Festival, FIFO, in French Polynesia, Read more
Sister Ma Theresa Trinh Vu Phuong has helped over 130 detained Vietnamese fishermen in a number of Papua New Guinean (PNG) prisons to return home. She looked after the needs of the detainees and served as their interpreter and mediator in court, said the secretary for communications and youth at Don Bosco Technical School at Read more
The Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Bill being considered by Fiji’s parliament will silence the essential independent accountability of agencies such as the media, civil society, religious organisations and others. This is the opinion expressed by the Methodist Church in its submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights last Thursday. The Read more
The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S), the largest christian denomination in Samoa, has rejected a proposal by the government to tax church ministers. At its annual conference last week a resolution was passed to present a letter to the government outlining the church’s objection. The rejection of the government’s plan was widely supported by the Read more