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CIVIL UNIONS BILL
Civil union not necessary says Dunne NZ Herald 21.06.2004 http://tinyurl.com/323d2 Peter Dunne will campaign against the Government's plans to legalise same-sex unions knowing his United Future Party is likely to be attacked as strict, conservative Christians...
Church blessing for civil unions The Dominion Post 22 June 2004 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2948181a10,00.html The gay marriage debate is heating up as some churches confirm plans to let same-sex couples trip down the aisle for civil union ceremonies...
Society for the Promotion of Community Standards Response to NZ Young Labour re Civil Unions Scoop.co.nz (press release) http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0406/S00261.htm
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ALAN WOODCOCK CASE
Paedophile former priest gets 7-year jail sentence NZPA 25 June 2004 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2952826a10,00.html Alan Woodcock, 56, formerly of Upper Hutt, was extradited from Britain and last month pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court to 21 charges relating to the abuse of 11 boys between 1978 and 1987 when he was teaching at St John's College, Hastings; St Patrick's College Silverstream; Highden, a school for young priests in Palmerston North; and Futuna, a Catholic retreat in Wellington...
Priest's victim gets apologies The Dominion Post 26 June 2004 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/0,2106,2952931a6479,00.html Senior Catholic Church officials who allowed paedophile priest Alan John Woodcock to become a teacher despite a conviction for sexual offending have apologised to one of his victims – 22 years after he was first abused...
Paedophile priest victim rejects apology The Press (Christchurch) 26 June 2004 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2953139a11,00.html An apology from jailed paedophile former Marist priest Alan Woodcock has been rejected by one of his early Christchurch victims...
Church doesn't condone sexual abuse NZ City 26 June 2004 http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.asp?id=40711 Church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer concedes the Church should have acted more strongly over the Woodcock case and, if it had known in the past what it does today, it would definitely have acted differently...
Police may go after the clergymen who hid abuse NZ Herald 26.06.2004 http://tinyurl.com/3dyfn Police are considering charges against Catholic priests involved in hiding Alan Woodcock's nine years of sexual abuse against schoolboys and young men...
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CATHOLIC WEB TV
Wellington Archdiocesan Media Centre
http://www.catholictv.net
New videos:
** The Life Of Mother Mary Aubert “From France To Island Bay” A two part 32 minute video (part one 14.42 mins) about the nun who founded the Soup Kitchen in Wellington, and is now being considered for canonization as New Zealand’s first ‘saint’. New archive photo material included
** Can we trust Maori over the seabed and forshore issue? Excerpts from an address by Pat Snedden
** "Art compass Exhibition" (illustrated interview). Art by disabled students at the studio upstairs from the Compassion Soup Kitchen, Wellington.
** "Aotearoa New Zealand" by Fr. Chris Skinner SM. Music video filmed at a recent Justice, Peace and Development seminar on the foreshore and seabed issue.
** "Green Time": The Gifts of Baptism, by Fr John Greally
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FROM THE SECULAR PRESS
Cardinal laments descent to 'moral wasteland' NZ Herald 26.06.2004 http://tinyurl.com/35oov The head of the Catholic Church has rounded on the liberal policies of recent Governments, saying the country is becoming a "moral wasteland". In a strongly worded essay entitled "The Spiritual Bankruptcy of Liberalism", Cardinal Tom Williams yesterday attacked a string of policy changes - from the Civil Union Bill to prostitution law reform - and likened modern politicians to barbarians...
Glowing references for 'reformed' Olympics-bound boxer New Zealand Herald 23.06.2004 http://tinyurl.com/3esll Soulan Pownceby took up boxing after early release from his four-year jail term following the death of his 5-month-old daughter. Salvation Army boxing academy coach Paul Fitzsimons vouched for him before a Parole Board hearing and agreed to house him on release, assisting his exit from Paparoa Prison. Pownceby had turned Christian a few months ago, accepting the Catholic faith, Fitzsimons said. "I don't know why people want to crucify him ...."
Far-away fears led to murder charges The Age (Melbourne) June 27, 2004 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/26/1088145022810.html?oneclick=true A worried mother, a Catholic priest and an inquisitive New Zealand constable have helped uncover what police now believe was a double murder more than 2000 kilometres away in Australia. The trio's teamwork was vital in setting off a chain of events that led to the arrest on Tuesday of John Myles Sharpe, accused of murdering his wife, Anna Kemp, 41, and their daughter, Gracie, 2, at their Mornington home.
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CATHOLIC COMMUNICATIONS NZ
http://www.cathcom.org.nz
INTERNATIONAL NEWS Pope urges increasing attention on Adult Faith Formation Pope addresses why we pray? Fr Klep being deported from Samoa Victorian Catholic teachers get bigger pay rise China denies detention of Bishops Archbishop Doyle cites 'The Byrds' in moving tribute to Jim Bacon
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FROM THE OVERSEAS CATHOLIC PRESS & NEWS AGENCIES
The hunger of man and the world for the Eucharist http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1037 Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The "silent apostasy" of Western Europe and the West in general is born of man's weak conviction, in today's technological era, of needing God, of needing the true Jesus that each day offers himself to us in the Eucharist, "faith's testing ground". As Cardinal Jozef Tomko, president of the International Eucharistic Congress, explains to AsiaNews, "faith in the person of Jesus Christ and in his divinity must be reinforced. As soon as you yield on one, you yield on the other. A new evangelization is needed, to reinforce faith in the Eucharist and in the divinity of Christ...."
Religious freedom, the more repressive governments are in Asia Asia News 25 June, 2004 http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1042 Roma (AsiaNews) – Here is some advance information about the 2004 Report on Religious Freedom in the World, edited by Aid to the Church in Need. We focus on the situation in some Asian countries where there is no religious freedom or where it is seriously restricted ...
Religious freedom, "touchstone" for human rights Asia News 25 June, 2004 http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1041 Rome (AsiaNews) -- "The uncovering of religious freedom violations should lead to political action. From the Catholic world as well." This is how Attilio Tamburrini, director of Aid to the Church in Need* (ACN), introduces the 2004 Report on Religious Freedom in the World which was presented this morning in Rome...
Standing up to be counted. The Tablet interviews George Weigel The Tablet (UK) 26 June 2004 http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/archive_db.cgi/tablet-00909 Few Catholics are as loyal as George Weigel – or as combative. The Pope’s biographer talks to Austen Ivereigh about faith, war and the death penalty
Bonds Among Believers Will Shape the Millennium, Says Chiara Lubich http://zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=55674 London, June 21, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The third millennium will be forged thanks to fraternal relations among believers of diverse religions, Focolare Movement founder Chiara Lubich told an audience of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs...
Catholic Army chaplain from Minnesota critically wounded in Iraq http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/20040609b.htm St. Paul, Minn. (Catholic News Service) - Family and friends of Father H. Timothy Vakoc continued to pray in early June for the U.S. Army chaplain from Minnesota who was seriously injured when a bomb exploded near his Humvee in Iraq May 29...
(related article) Military chaplains brave danger for troops (photos) Stars and Stripes (US Armed Forces newspaper) June 20, 2004 http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/article.asp?section=104&article=22882
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"THE WORD FROM ROME"
http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/
A weekly column in the National Catholic Reporter by the paper's full-time Vatican correspondent John L. Allen
Summary of the column for June 25, 2004: Pope displeased by Europe's rejection of Christian roots; Roots in Spain are robust; Conference on the New Age movement; Bush's appeal to the Vatican; "campaigning" for the papacy; Possible papal travels
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EMPLOYMENT
[Teaching vacancies in New Zealand Catholic schools are advertised in the Education Gazette: http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/vacancies ]
[Vacancies in Catholic Youth Ministry are advertised on the Job Bank page of the National Council for Young Catholics: http://ncyc.org.nz ]
National Director, Office for Professional Standards A National Office for Professional Standards is to be established by the Catholic Church in New Zealand, charged with assisting dioceses, religious orders and complainants by offering an independent assessment of abuse complaints that have not had a satisfactory outcome, and by arranging, where necessary, an alternative procedure for dealing with such complaints. Further details in 'NZ Catholic' June 27 p.23, on http://www.cathcom.org.nz/media.php and from Mike Hurdle or Catharina Vossen at MICAH Partners, tel. 04 499 4749, mobile: 021-552929, fax: 0-4-4997375 or e-mail: contact@micahpartners.co.nz Applications close 2 July 2004
Researcher, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand http://www.caritas.org.nz 20 hours per week for a 6-month fixed term project to assist with NZ social justice issues. Further details in 'Wel-com' June 2004 p.17, and from: claire@caritas.org.nz ; tel: (04) 496 1742. Applications close 1 July 2004
Accountant, Clergy Trust Fund Board, Archdiocese of Wellington http://www.wn.catholic.org.nz/wellington/clergy/Further details in 'Wel-com' June 2004 p.17, and from: The Secretary, Clergy Trust Fund Board, PO Box 15-256. Wellington 6030; e-mail: holyx@xtra.co.nz
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