The modernisation seeks to fill a twenty-six-year gap and reflect some of the modern challenges.

Dr John Kleinsman, director of the NZ Catholic bishops' Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics, is delighted with the bishops' update.

Kleinsman describes the new document as a "succinct overview of eight key moral areas, including a new section on information technology and artificial intelligence."

Among the modern challenges the bishops consider

• Information technology and artificial intelligence
• Justice and correction systems
• War and peace
• Poverty
• Discrimination and abuse
• End-of-life issues
• Beginning of life issues
• Integrity of Creation

Kleinsman says that people generally know what the Chucrh teaches but are unsure of why.

Te Kahu o te Ora - A Consistent Ethic of Life summarises key points which can give people greater insights into Catholic thinking, comments Kleinsman.

"It is a great source for open and informed discussions", says Kleinsman who, as well as being a theologian, is a married man, father and grandfather.

The original Te Kahu o te Ora was inspired by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's A Consistent Ethic of Life.

Bernardin's work grew from his observation that we must act consistently because all human life is sacred.

It was Bernadin's view that it was inconsistent to protect life in some situations but not in others.

In the years following Roe v. Wade, Bernardin argued that human life is always valuable and must be respected consistently from conception to natural death.

Being pro-life is not only about abortion or euthanasia.

Being pro-life must encompass war, poverty, access to health care, education and anything that threatens human life or human wellbeing, he argued.

Stephen Lowe, the Bishop of Auckland, the Apostolic Administrator of Hamilton and President of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, describes the update as "Opportune".

Lowe says human life and emerging challenges are interconnected.

"The essence of Te Kahu o te Ora is the interconnectedness of all life, from the womb to the Earth," he said.

Lowe says Pope Benedict put it well some years ago:

"There are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God's darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast."

"While traditional human life issues continue to need our attention, we are now facing many new problems, all interlinked.

"The key message of Te Kahu o te Ora is that everything is connected, whether it is life in the womb or the life of the Earth," Lowe repeated.

Sources

• Supplied
• Catholic Sun

Ron was in his late 80s, a bushman who valued his independence.

He wouldn't let Hospice visit him at home because he didn't want the neighbours to know he was sick. But he did agree to me visiting him at the pub, so I would meet with him every Tuesday at the Devonport Tavern.

My very first visit was on a Friday, and I remember standing at the doorway thinking, ‘What am I doing?'

I hadn't been in a bar since before I was married.

The bar was thick with smoke, and there were two TVs showing a boxing match; people were roaring.

I asked the barmaid where I could find Ron and she pointed to a man by the jukebox.

Ron was such a regular he had his own plaque on the wall and his own chair beneath it.

Our first conversation was very difficult because there was so much noise and he was more interested in the boxing match.

We agreed that next time we would meet on a Tuesday when it was quieter.

Over a five-week period, Ron became more and more frail, so I got him to come to Hospice Daycare once a week, where he could have a decent meal and meet other patients.

One day I had a call from the barmaid asking me to come because Ron did not seem well.

I arrived to find Ron looking dreadful.

I took him home and we called his GP, who recommended he go into a Hospice inpatient unit.

At that stage we didn't have one, so we rang St Joseph's Hospice.

At St Joseph's, Ron sat on the bed and pulled out his mouth organ. He had always promised to play it for me, but when he put the instrument to his lips, no sound came.

We both cried.

Ron died a couple of days later.

All the bar regulars were at his funeral, and that was just the most amazing tribute to a wonderful Devonport character.

My Hospice role was honestly the best I ever had.

It was tough at times, but knowing I made a difference has given me immense satisfaction.

Orla and Brian were devout Irish Catholics.

They shared a very strong faith and had crosses all over their house.

I had been calling in regularly to help Orla care for Brian, who had cancer.

On this particular day, I was on a rostered day off, but Orla found my number and called me and said, "You'd better come quickly, it's time."

I said, "Orla, I'm off duty. But tell me, what is Brian doing?"

She said, "He's sitting at the table eating his porridge."

I said, "Well, Orla, I can probably reassure you that Brian's not dying today."

She said, "He is. He'll be going at three o'clock today. I've prayed to the Holy Spirit. I've prayed to the Novena of the Precious Blood that he will have a holy death and I will be told. And she told me Brian's going today at three o'clock."

Orla had called their only son and told him to be there to say goodbye to his father.

I stopped by to reassure them and saw that Brian was fine, so I went on my merry way.

The next morning I got to work… only to learn that Brian had passed away at exactly three o'clock the previous afternoon, just as Orla had said he would.

To my absolute surprise, she had been right, and I had been wrong.

I'll never forget Orla.

She's affected me hugely over the years in regard to her practice and her total belief in the hereafter.

The reality for me was that her belief was so strong that it came to fruition.

And I don't think it would have mattered what religion she followed - whether it was Hindu or Buddhism or whatever - it was the depth of her belief system that defied all logic and made what she saw, true. Continue reading

But when 99% of Catholic churches have a male preacher this Sunday in a world where 50% of the Catholic population are women, it's time for our daughters and granddaughters — and sons and grandsons — to see us naming out loud a problem we've endured quietly in our hearts.

What seemed normalised to my devout Catholic Cuban grandmothers, and became uncomfortable for my mother and has become unacceptable for me, is now unbearable for my nieces and many of our daughters.

This will have untold consequences for the future of Catholic ministries.

According to a report by the Pew Research Center, as of 2022, 43% of Hispanic adults identify as Catholic, down from 67% in 2010.

In my work listening to older Hispanic/Latino Catholics in Miami, Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere, I often hear how their children and grandchildren have become disengaged from their families' long-standing, multigenerational Catholic faith.

The loss of family unity feels enormous.

I co-direct Discerning Deacons, a project inviting Catholics to consider women's inclusion in the permanent diaconate — an order that already includes married men ordained to serve in the life of the church.

We launched our effort because young Catholics have only ever lived in a church reckoning with the clergy sex-abuse crisis.

They see other professional fields taking steps to recognize women in visible leadership roles — athletics, government, academics, medicine, business — and wonder why their religious institutions will not.

These challenges have not escaped my own family.

After my niece Carolina was confirmed as a teenager, she begged her parents not to obligate her to keep going to Mass.

My niece found it increasingly painful and unbearable to walk into a church where only men preached.

"I can't find God in church when I'm feeling so angry and rejected," Carolina told her mother.

"They haven't set up a space to welcome me the way I believe God would welcome me."

The family was faced with rethinking Sundays.

Ultimately, they agreed that Carolina would choose a spiritual book that interested her to keep nurturing her soul, which was important to her parents, and on the way to Mass, they would drop her off at Starbucks.

After they picked her up, they would engage in a faith conversation.

Today, Carolina is living out her faith by building a community that is more inclusive and welcoming — much like what Jesus did. Continue reading

• Ellie Hidalgo is a parishioner at Our Lady of Divine Providence Church in Miami, Florida and is co-director of Discerning Deacons, a project that engages Catholics in the active discernment of our Church about women and the diaconate.