Mana whenua gifted the new Wellington City Mission building its name - Whakamaru - a symbol of shelter, safeguarding and protection reflecting the community hub's purpose.

Essential services

Located near the Basin Reserve, the nearly complete five-storey Whakamaru community hub will gather numerous essential services under its roof.

These include -

• transitional housing for 40 people
• a social supermarket (offering foodbank shoppers choice and preserving their dignity)
• a pay-as-you-feel community café
• a state-of-the-art medical centre
• space being set aside for financial mentoring and social work services

Whakamaru is likely to serve about 4,000 vulnerable individuals in its first year, says Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge.

The medical centre will offer patients comprehensive medical capability with five GPs, a mental health team, an optometrist and a podiatrist.

Safe and inclusive

Edridge says the project aims to make a safe, inclusive space that mirrors the familiar comfort of everyday places.

He hopes Whakamaru will further the Wellington City Mission's goal of breaking down the barriers and stigma associated with accessing essential services and supporting and building an inclusive community without division.

"We continuously review our services to ensure they are fit for purpose as the needs of the community change and grow. The creation of Whakamaru is about curating a space for the community - no matter where you are in life, you will be welcome here," Edridge says.

"Whakamaru will benefit the entire Wellington region..."

The past year has seen the Mission record a 47 percent increase in demand for food. Just in the last quarter, it has seen a 28 percent increase in demand for its community lounge and a 40 percent surge in the use of its social supermarket offering.

Source

• Newshub

Helping these people is not a form of socialism, it's Church teaching.

Zampini says the Church's advocacy for the poor has resulted in some people accusing it of being socialists.

"Our answer is": ‘So, some companies are asking for help, and that's not socialism, but if poor people or informal workers need help, that's socialism?'

"This is not about ideology. This is not about socialism or capitalism."

"All the structures of society are being challenged at the moment. What we are trying to implement is the preferential option for the poor. That's one of the basic principles, and it is an ethical imperative according to Laudato Si," Zampini says.

Zampini, who is an adjunct secretary in the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, says while all proposals have complications, including providing a universal basic income, "we need to do something."

"We cannot remain indifferent, and these people cannot be invisible for society."

He pointed out that at present "millions of people" are losing their jobs.

While some people's needs are covered by the market and others receive unemployment insurance from the state, "what happens to those millions of people who aren't covered by either the market or the state?"

They are being forced by the pandemic to stay at home.

Zampini says one person told him that if he stayed home without working, his family risked dying of hunger, but going out meant he could also be infected or that he could infect someone else.

"We cannot force them to stay at home…without any support," Zampini says.

He echoes Pope Francis's call for a universal basic income.

"It has its pros and cons, but if you weigh these pros and cons today, there's no doubt we should do something, at least if we want to promote health for everyone.

"We need to sustain those who are doing something for society such as staying home."

The Vatican's coronavirus taskforce is charged with handling the challenges resulting from the pandemic.

Led by Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Vatican's development department, five working groups are looking at different aspects of the pandemic fallout, including unemployment and research.

Tying the Church's response to the pandemic fallout to the papal encyclical, Laudato Si', Turkson says "We listen to the cry of creation and the cry of the poor."

Zampini also points out that the world is facing a severe food shortage, which could cause violent conflicts to arise due to insecurity, creating an even larger class of those living in poverty.

"The value of society is determined by how it treats its most vulnerable members," he says.

Helping poor and jobless people affected by COVID-19 is, "an opportunity to change, both in production and consumption patterns and in private and public actions."

Source

• Crux
• Image:SBS

She will provide support to dioceses, congregations and Catholic organisations in the continued implementation of safeguarding practices around New Zealand.

NOPS is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Catholic Church's policy and procedures for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Bishop Steve Lowe of the National Committee for Professional Standards says "all dioceses have confirmed adoption of a national safeguarding policy which sets consistent expectations of how to develop and maintain safe environments in all of our Church entities."

NOPS is developing a range of support materials and resources to support parishes and others wanting to implement safeguarding practices.

A key initiative is the rollout of safeguarding workshops to support volunteers and employees undertake their roles safely and with confidence.

Dioceses are at various stages of delivery of Workshop One, which is for all those who work with or provide ministry to children and/or vulnerable adults.

Director of the NOPS, Virginia Noonan, is overseeing the national safeguarding roll-out and has been meeting with various groups of people in each diocese to support this work.

Ko te mahi a te Tari Paerewa Ngaio-a-Motu (NOPS), ko te whakarite i te mahere rautaki, ko te tutohu i nga tikanga mo te kaupapa here me nga tukanga to te Hahi Katorika mo te haumarutanga me te manaaki i nga tamariki me nga pakeke paraheahea. E hangaia ana e ia etehi rauemi hei awhina i nga pekanga a te Hahi kia noho haumaru ona kainga.

Ko te haepapa a NOPs ko te whakautu i nga whakapae e pa ana ki nga mahi tukino i roto i te Hahi me te tirotiro i nga whakapae tukino a te kahui amorangi, hunga parata me nga whaea tapu.

NOPS sets the strategic direction and ensures compliance of the Catholic Church's safeguarding policy and procedures for children and vulnerable adults.

NOPS is also responsible for responding to complaints of abuse in the Church and overseeing the investigation of complaints of sexual abuse against clergy and members of religious orders.

Source

Supplied: New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference - Te Huinga o nga Pihopa Katorika o Aotearoa

Francis, who is both the Vatican head of state and the head of the Church new law, wants the new law to be a model for the church globally.

The legal changes reflect a desire to show the Church is finally acting against clerical child abuse after decades of scandals around the world.

They make it obligatory for superiors and co-workers to report abuse allegations; punish failure to report with dismissal, fines or jail; and offer assistance to victims and families.

The new law also provides protection to vulnerable adults.

The new laws define a vulnerable person very broadly. The definition includes anyone "in an infirm state, of physical or mental deficiency, or deprivation of personal freedom, that in fact, even occasionally, limits their capacity to intend or to want or in any way to resist the offence."

The new definition radically expands the definition currently being used by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in its handling of cases from dioceses around the world. That definition says a "vulnerable" person is one who "habitually lacks the use of reason."

This is the first time a unified, detailed policy for protecting children has been compiled for the Vatican, and its embassies and universities outside the city state.

The law sets up procedures for reporting suspected abuse, imposes more screening of prospective employees, and sets strict guidelines for adult interaction with children and the use of social media.

Any Vatican public official who learns of an allegation of abuse is obliged to report it to Vatican prosecutors "without delay."

Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to 5,000 euros ($5,615) or, in the case of a Vatican gendarme, up to six months in prison.

The mandatory reporting provision is significant. Until now, the Holy See has justified not having a binding reporting policy for the universal church saying the accused clergy could be unfairly persecuted in places where Catholics are a threatened minority.

Since that is not a risk in the Vatican, it is now law.

"With this document the Vatican wants to send a message that it takes these crimes seriously, wants to prosecute them, to avoid cover up, and also to create an atmosphere that prevents these crimes from happening in the first place," a canon law professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University says.

The legislation requires that victims be welcomed, listened to and provided with medical, psychological and legal assistance.

It sets the statute of limitations at 20 years past the victim's 18th birthday.

Source

• La Stampa
• Reuters
• DW.com
• The Boston Pilot
• Image: South China Morning Post