Sunday, November 28, 1999





Dear 'kiwicatholics',

On the New Zealand Catholic Internet this week:

*********************
From the November issue of Tui Motu InterIslands at:
http://www.catholic.org/newzealand/tuimotu

Editorial: 'Time for a change' [ a brief commentary on the forthcoming
General Election, and on businessman Hugh Fletcher's views on business and
social responsibility]

'Whose country is it anyway?' [A review by Tom Cloher of Jane Kelsey's book
'Reclaiming the Future: New Zealand and the Global Economy'. Link to a paper
by Jane Kelsey, 'Life in the economic test-tube']

'Where is the priesthood going?' [A conversation between Fr Paul Andrews, an
Irish Jesuit teacher and pediatric psychotherapist, and Dr Anna Holmes, a
Christchurch G.P. about changing perceptions of the Catholic priesthood with
particular reference to Ireland. Link to the Irish Jesuits' home page.]

********************

New publications by our sponsor NZ Catholic Education Office :

'Lighting New Fires' and Catholic Schools' Supplement, November 1999
http://www.catholic.org/newzealand/nzceo/pubs/lnf/lnf.html
[News and notes for teachers in integrated schools* with many links to
education resources on the Internet]

'Good News & the News' October 1999, plus a Special Edition
http://www.catholic.org/newzealand/nzceo/pubs/gnatn/index.html
[This "broadsheet of good practice in integrated schools" contains fewer -
but more detailed - reports than LNF on educational innovations in our
Catholic schools. One which especially caught my attention is in the Special
Edition: 'How Liston College**, Henderson - a boys-only school - is
reversing the trend of recent years by which boys are doing increasingly
less well at school than girls. The school identified the characteristic
ways in which boys learn and adapted its teaching accordingly]

* Schools which are integrated into the state school system while preserving
a special character.
** In New Zealand 'college' almost always refers to a high school.
*********************

Now some administration matters.

From time to time messages are sent to 'kiwicatholic' which are really
private communications intended for me as the list manager, mostly from
members leaving the list. In that case it's better to write directly to me
at leon@xtra.co.nz
My address appears at the head of all my weekly posts.

My thanks to Brian for the complimentary comment.

Kelly Neal wrote:
>
> I was mistakenly under the impression that "kiwi" was a monthly
> "newsletter" about catholic topics/happenings etc. in new Zealand. I am
not
> interested in receiving regular emails about the topics that you and your
> members discuss in your forums:
>

On the Catholic home page under 'E-mail forum' I described 'kiwicatholic'
like this:
*************
"'kiwicatholic' is an e-mail forum sponsored by the New Zealand Catholic
Education Office. After joining, a member may send an e-mail message to its
correspondence address. The message is automatically copied to all the other
members, creating the forum.
"Our topic is "Catholic life in New Zealand", including overseas events of
interest to New Zealand Catholics ...
"Since 'kiwicatholic' opened in March 1999 it has carried weekly news of the
New Zealand Catholic Internet, reports of current events in dioceses and
parishes around New Zealand, members' views on matters of faith and
discussions on the future of our Catholic schools. Members have also
established a prayer ministry ..."
************

Is this a fair description of our forum? Could it be made clearer while
still being kept short?

Kelly also couldn't find the 'unsubscribe' option on the OneList Web site -
http://www.onelist.com - and I sympathise with that. *I* have trouble
finding my way around it! Members can leave simply by sending an e-mail
message addressed to:
kiwicatholic-unsubscribe@onelist.com
or by writing to me a leon@xtra.co.nz

The other option I need to mention now - and I'll repeat in each post up to
Christmas - is the option of suspending messages from 'kiwicatholic' to
your e-mail address without quitting the list altogether. This is
particularly handy if you are going on holiday and you don't want to be
flooded with messages when you come back.

To do this:

* Open the OneList home page at http://www.onelist.com
* Click on the "My OneList" link at the top left of the page
* You see a link called 'kiwicatholic' and opposite it on the right a box
headed 'Delivery Options' over a drop-down menu. Click the little arrow to
show the menu options, click on "No Mail/Web only", then click "Save
Changes". Or ...... write to me and I'll do to for you :-)

When you want to start receiving posts again, do the same, but click on the
"Individual Emails" option (or write to me. I won't complain, honestly).

On the topic of marijuana use, the NZ Ministry of Health has published a
report called "Cannabis: the public health issues". I have only read the
summary but just from that the report looks like a really good starting
point for a serious discussion.
To read the summary and find the link to the full report open the Ministry's
search page at: http://210.48.125.104/searchweb.nsf/$SearchForm?Searchsite
enter 'marijuana' in the search slot, click Search, then click the link
the search finds.

A warm welcome this week to Ray McGarry at Holy Family Parish, near Wigan in
the heartland of English Rugby League.
Thanks for your intro. Ray. You join a fair number of 'kiwicatholics' in
other countries. We would welcome your observations from an English
perspective on the issues that concern us all as Catholics.

You wrote:

> We have an interest in Maori culture, and would welcome information
> on how to obtain recordings of any Masses which have been put to the
> traditional music/vocal rendition of the Maori.

The two organisations mostly likely to help you are both based in Auckland,
so to save time I suggest you write directly to Auckland Catholic
Communications at cathcomm@xtra.co.nz and ask them to pass your request on
to:

'Te Runanga o Te Hahi Katorika ki Aotearoa' ('Te Runanga' for short), our
bishops' national Maori advisory council
and
'Tamaki Maori Mission Team and Community' which is an Auckland diocesan
group.

Finally folks, if its freezing and raining where you are as it here, what
better way to pass the afternoon than a virtual tour of Wigan Borough via
its very fine Web site, starting at:
http://www.wiganmbc.gov.uk/pub/council/wmbguide/contents.htm

Until next week, God bless.

Mike Leon
'kiwicatholic' list manager