Finlayson says he has vigorously chided church leaders who try to intervene in politics.

On one occasion the Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew, invited him to a picnic on Parliament's lawn.

Finlayson says Dew wanted to demonstrate that through the sharing of food collectively we have sufficient resources to ensure all New Zealanders a moderate standard of living.

Appalled, Finlayson declined in writing, saying the picnic was almost as "gimmicky" as the antics of the Anglican leadership.

Quoting a Thatcher Bible favourite, 1 Timothy 5-8 Finlayson says St Paul warns that people who do not provide for their own families were disowning their faith. The former Cabinet Minister's letter also said he deplored Catholic teaching being used "as a cover for extreme left-wing redistributionist views."

He says that former Prime Minister John Key later said he'd had complaints from some bishops that Finlayson had been rude to them.

"I didn't think I'd been rude - rather, I was attempting to tell them how to do their jobs," he says.

Finlayson says it makes him cringe when other politicians discuss their faith publicly.

In fact he advised one new MP, Paulo Garcia, "not to talk about Jesus" in his maiden speech.

"He did.

"It's not New Zealand, is it?

"I just think it jars in this country.

"Often it doesn't seem authentic," he says.

Finlayson says that New Zealand is a secular country and when dealing with matters that impact on religion it's important to find a secular response.

Asked by The Spinoff's Ben Thomas whether it is really possible to ring-fence belief from politics, Finlayson says politicians have to.

"I mean, my view on abortion is that I don't know when life begins and I don't know when life ends because there are these blurry periods.

"I acknowledge that my views, which come from mainstream Catholicism, are in many respects out of place in a secular New Zealand.

"And so I can't go around imposing my views on people.

"This is where I think the United States have got it completely wrong.

"On the one hand, you have people who would be in favour of partial-birth abortions, and then there are those who say nothing from the moment of conception.

"I would have thought sensible people could get together and work out some kind of compromise which would get the damn topic out of the headlines."

A former Cabinet minister's memoir - Yes, Minister - is now out on the shelves.

Subtitled "An insider's account of the John Key years," Finlayson's book makes positive comments about his former boss and nice things about other politicians too - not all of them on the same side of the House.

Sources

• NZ Herald
• The Spinoff

The new law (formerly known as Bill 21) prohibits some government employees, including public school teachers, state lawyers, judges and police officers from wearing religious symbols or clothing.

However, the religious symbol prohibitions will apply only to people employed after the law was passed. Established employees will be able to wear religious symbols while they keep their current jobs.

It also includes a notwithstanding clause overriding some parts of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, mainly those about religious liberties. This clause shields it from too many legal challenges.

Some last-minute amendments concerning surveillance provisions have made the law more stringent than anticipated.

Quebec's government says it wants to strengthen separation of the state and religions, religious neutrality of the state, equality of all citizens and freedom of conscience and religion.

Most religious groups — including Christians and Muslims — were not invited to participate in the hearings about Bill 21 when it was being debated at a National Assembly commission in May.

While Catholic bishops have said they agree with the idea of promoting a secular state, they have also said they are concerned the law should not be at the expense of fundamental religious rights.

"We believe that it's better to fight prejudices and fear in a rational way, by educating people about the diversity of religious, spiritual and cultural experiences and traditions, rather than by prohibitions," they said before Bill 21 was passed into law.

Canada's National Council of Canadian Muslims says it will legally challenge the new law.

"Late last night the Quebec government legalised discrimination on the basis of religion," the National Council says. It calls the last-minute amendments about the surveillance provisions of workplaces "deeply troubling."

"This creates a second-class citizenship," a National Council spokesman says. The Council will seek a court injunction to block the law that the spokesman calls "a recipe for the politics of fear."

Quebec Premier Francois Legault says Quebecers have been expecting such a law "for a long time" and that they clearly want to prohibit religious symbols for "people with (state) authority."

Opposition leader Pierre Arcand says said this new "botched" law "removes" rights for people.

"Waking up with fewer rights for people that I love in a place that I love," a Montreal rabbi says. "It's worse than we had expected. There will be lots of legal challenges."

Source

• Reuters
• Catholic Herald
• Image: VideoHive

The Court of Justice of the European €Union (CJEU) ordered Italy to recover the ICI property tax that the catholic Church never paid to the Italian government.

The European judges have decided to rule out a 2012 decision of the European Commission and a 2016 judgment of the EU Court which allowed Rome to exempt the Vatican from paying taxes on its real estate.

The previous verdicts stated "the impossibility of recovering the aid due to organizational difficulties", but now the judges in Luxembourg have revised their position, asserting that it is a matter of mere "internal difficulties" in Italy and that there is no reasons for that money not to be paid.

The Italian Executive must reclaim an amount of roughly 5 billion euros, which corresponds to the arrears that the Church should have paid in between 2006 and 2011.

The ICI have been in place from 1992 to 2012, when the Mario Monti administration determined to replace it with IMU, a tax that combines the one on real estate and the IRPEF, an income tax.

For many years, the ICI was not applied to the Church's properties, as part of the practice to exonerate places of worship from taxation.

However many religious buildings on the Italian soil are rather meant for other kind of activities, like accommodation services and leisure.

In 2012, Monti's government decided that duty exemptions were to be applied only to worship places, but every other estate belonging to the Church with commercial aims must be subject to taxation.

However, these double standards were quite criticized, especially because it only took a chapel to define a building as worship place, even when the main activity was a completely different one, like a restaurant or a hostel.

That is why the Montessori primary school, a private but secular institute in Rome, decided to file an appeal to the Court of Justice against the 2016 ruling, which affirmed that it would have been "objectively" impossible to calculate retroactively the amount to be paid and whether the activities were commercial or non-commercial, so to know when the taxes should have been applied.

"It has been a long battle but, in the end, David has beaten Goliath", the representatives of the school told Ansa, the Italian news agency, ironically using a religious metaphor to comment on the judgement.

The Italian Radical Party, which had itself presented an appeal against tax exemption for the Church more than a decade ago, supported the school's suit.

It is for sure a victory to all those secular institutions that have been fighting Church's privileges for a long time, but like it often happens when it comes to the relationship between State and Church, the religious power gets only superficially affected.

Yes, it will have to restore 5 years of taxes on real estate due to ICI, but the actual IMU distinction between economic and non-economic religious activities, which determines that just one category of properties is going to be taxed, is going to stay in place.

Which means that the catholic Church can still count on many economic privileges on the Italian soil.

Such privileges have a long history: the primacy of political influence in Italy was always contended by the secular and religious powers, in a tradition of disputes, intrigues and power games.

The presence of the catholic seat and its most important institutions within the Italian borders, has always played a big role in the country's politics and society and always had to be dealt with by the governments.

In 1929 dictator Benito Mussolini signed a document with Pietro Gasparri, Cardinal Secretary of State, thinking that it would quell or at least resize the Church's political power and influence on the Italian public opinion.

Turned out it did quite the opposite.

By signing the Lateran Treaty, Mussolini granted the Church with its privileges that have a huge impact still today in many aspects of the sociopolitical sphere in Italy.

The pact was made of two clauses, one that gave the Pope full independence and sovereignty over Vatican City, and the Concordate, which defined the relations between the two parts.

The Italian government agreed to conform its own laws over marriage to the catholic ones, it assured the Vatican with tax breaks, it cancelled import tariffs, it exonerated religious men from military service and it acknowledged Catholicism as its one and only religion.

The Treaty is still a part of the Italian Constitution (article VII) which was drafted right after the World War II, when Mussolini was executed by the partisans, and was brought into force in 1948.

In 1984 the article was revised, and the clause for which Catholicism was the only religion of the State was removed. On the contrary, all the privileges that Mussolini allowed to the Church were reaffirmed, for which still nowadays Italy is one of the most religious countries in the EU, and its politics are heavily shaped by the influence of the Vatican on its soil.

There are still a lot of catholic schools in the peninsula, state-financed pension funds for religious men and salaries for chaplains, fiscal exemptions and tax relief for billions of euros every year, a ridiculous amount of money paid by all Italian citizens. Citizens of a secular state.

In the end, the Church owns far more of Italy than a big square in Rome. Continue reading

Across Hawke's Bay/Tararua only half of the six councils have an official prayer which references religion.

Of these three, two favour a karakia (a Maori formal greeting similar to a prayer). Continue reading

He said this partnership had lasted but now there was little respect shown to the church by the national and provincial education authorities.

"They rarely consult their partners when setting new policies and making changes in the education system," Roche said.

A new organisation which has recently been set up in Fiji would see this as progress.

The Pacific Islands Secular Association (PISA) was established in Fiji earlier this year.

PISA's aim is to work with Pacific Island nations to try to persuade governments that secular republican government is more appropriate in the 21st century.

It specifically identifies the Churches' role in health and education in Papua New Guinea as a problem.

The blogs on the Association's website are posted under the pseudonym pisasecularists.

Details regarding the membership and structure of the organisation do not seem to be available.

PISA describes itself as is a non-party-political organisation aiming to attract members from all walks of life.

"PISA is a democratic and independent non-profit organisation which receives no funding from government or other public bodies."

"Its work will be wholly supported by its members and supporters, those who agree that religion and politics should be kept separate."

PISA says none of the Pacific Islands can be described as culturally secular.

It notes that Pacific Island nations have been deeply affected by missionaries from a wide range of Christian denominations, and other religions over two centuries.

"Of the Pacific Island nations only Fiji has a written constitutional separation of church and state."

PISA believes secular state is the most developed constitutional form of democracy.

It says a secular state is typified by:

• Constitutional separation of church and state
• Impartiality of the state between religions and other, alternative beliefs
• Recognition that what citizens believe is a private matter, not something that concerns government, so long as any belief does not break the law
• Non-participation by religious organisations in the making of parliamentary laws
• No government subsidy of religions, their schools, or alternative beliefs and their schools

Source

• pacificsecularists.wordpress.com
• secularism.org.uk
• thenational.com.pg
• Image: www.fijileaks.com

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama told Parliament that Fiji was a secular state and the Government would not give priority to one faith over another.

He was responding to a question asked by Opposition MP Mosese Bulitavu on why the government won't assist in rebuilding churches and village halls damaged by Winston.

"As the Prime Minister and as a Christian, I respect the important role religion plays in our lives."

"And they (Opposition) are playing on this. I know the reason why they (Opposition) came up with this question," Bainimarama said.

"We are a multi-faith nation and we have a Constitution that guarantees religious freedom and establishes Fiji as a secular state."

"Fijians practice many different faiths, it can do so knowing that they are protected under our laws and that Government does not favour any one religion over another."

He said Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and other denominations could all practice freely in Fiji.

"What about the mosques and temples that suffered damage, are those also the responsibility of Government to rebuild?"

Mr Bainimarama said Government was not in the position to decide whose churches were worthy of rebuilding and it was not Government's job to build any house of religion in Fiji.

He said village halls and churches are more capable of financing their own repairs than the many distraught families who have no homes.

Bainimarama says communities should be responsible for rebuilding their places of worship and village halls.

-
Source

• fijitimes.com
• fbc.com.fj
• Image: livingdreams.tv

He says it underlines the unique nature of Fiji.

According to its new constitution Fiji is a multi-faith nation that guarantees religious freedom and establishes a secular state.

Bainimarama believes religion is a unifying force and a bridge between all races, no matter what denomination people belonged to.

"Many people in Fiji were alarmed by the provision in our new Constitution that makes Fiji a secular state."

"They thought that made Fiji non-religious - or even hostile to religion. Their fear is unjustified," he said.

"Our constitution simply respects all religions. Where all faiths flourish in harmony, morality and goodness prevail. That is because faith ennobles."

The Muslim community in Fiji has played a pivotal role together with other Fijians in the country's many achievements, said Bainimarama.

He made these remarks at a dinner with the British Columbia Muslim Association in Canada last week.

Fiji is a multi-race and a multi-culture country, so there is a range of religions present.

The population is 53% Christian, 38% Hindu, and 8% Muslim, with small groups of Sikhs.

It is very common to see Christian churches, mosques, and Sikh and Hindu temples throughout the islands.

Source

• fbc.com.fj
• fijitimes.com
• fijisheart.weebly.com
• Image: fijione,tv

They have both made submissions on proposed plan changes.

They say under the new rules their special recognition disappears.

Under the current District Plan spiritual activities involving churches are treated separately from other activities that involve large gatherings.

The existing plan says this is in recognition of the service churches provide to the community, not only each Sunday but also through food banks and as places for the community to gather.

This means that churches are able to continue operating in largely residential areas, where other organisations and businesses, such as cinemas and sports clubs, are prevented from operating.

Neither the Basilica nor the Cathedral are affected by the new changes as they are in the centre of the city.

But both denominations are considering where to best locate places of worship after taking account of shifts in the population following the quakes.

There is a concern about the extra compliance costs that may be incurred for having to apply for resource consent to rebuild churches in residential areas, including in places where a church has stood since the city was first settled.

In its submission to the plan, Catholic Diocese of Christchurch said churches had a wide variety of functions apart from just spiritual activities and played an active role in the community providing social services, a meeting place for groups.

It was important these activities were allowed within the plan, the diocese said.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: christchurchdailyphoto.com

He undertook a very low-key consultation process with MPs and offered an alternative that would remove religious references to "Almight God" and "Jesus Christ our Lord" from the English version.

However his alternative prayer included lines in Maori - E te Atua Kaha Rawa - that translates to "Almighty God," something Assistant Speaker Trevor Mallard described as "almost dishonest." Continue reading

Archbishop Piero Marini, who served for 18 years as Pope John Paul II's liturgical Master of Ceremonies, said "there are many couples that suffer because their civil rights aren't recognised".

Archbishop Marini, who is now the president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, was being interviewed by La Nación newspaper in Costa Rica, following a local eucharistic congress.

The archbishop made his statement in the context of a question about the meaning of a secular state.

"This is already a reality in Europe," he said. "A secular state is fine, but if it turns into a secularist state, meaning hostile to the Catholic Church, then there's something wrong.

"Church and state should not be enemies to one another. In these discussions, it's necessary, for instance, to recognise the union of persons of the same sex, because there are many couples that suffer because their civil rights aren't recognised.

"What can't be recognised is that this [union] is equivalent to marriage."

In February a similar position was expressed by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

During a Vatican news conference, Archbishop Paglia said that while the Church is opposed to anything that treats other unions as equivalent to marriage between a man and a woman, it could accept "private law solutions" for protecting people's rights.

In his La Nación interview, Archbishop Marini was also asked what the recent change in the papacy meant.

"It's a breath of fresh air, it's opening a window on to springtime and on to hope," he said.

"We had been breathing the waters of a swamp, and it had a bad smell. We'd been in a Church afraid of everything, with problems such as Vatileaks and the paedophilia scandals. With Francis we're talking about positive things; he puts the emphasis on the positive and talks about offering hope."

Sources:

National Catholic Reporter

Vatican Insider

Image: Chronicle Herald

"Fiji was given to God," Waqairatu told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat.

"When we say that Fiji is a Christian state…we say it was decided by our chiefs who ceded Fiji to Great Britain that Fiji be a Christian country.

"When it was given to God, it has already established its covenant relationship with God, and that covenant relationship is eternal - it cannot be withdrawn."

The party removed from power in 2006, the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua, was in favour of Fiji being declared a Christian state.

However, the interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and his Government and other major Christian churches support the separation of church and state.

Vijendra Prakash, general secretary of Sanatan Dharam, one of Fiji's main Hindu groups, told Radio Australia his members would prefer Fiji to be a secular state where religion does not mix with politics.

"Because this country is multicultural religion and a multilingual country, and we have been living so happily," he said.

"All the religious organisations are given respect and rights and no one is given supremacy over another or try to undermine the others."

Source

• The Fiji Sun
• Radio Australia
• Image: Coup Four and a Half

Vicar General, Fr Beni Kaloudau, said the Catholic Church in Fiji welcomes the principle of equal rights to worship.

Kaloudau said that citizens made up different faith groups in the country which needs to be respected based on the different ethnicities and faiths of citizens as well as visitors to the Fijian shores considering the country's dependence on tourism.

Source

• Sina
• Image: Fiji Guide