Sunday, February 23, 2020

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Dear readers,
A very short News & Notes is all I can manage this week. Back to normal in a week's time.
God bless,
Mike Leon

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LENT 2020:

The Lent Appeal on behalf of the NZ Catholic Bishops' Conference enables Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand to continue working to heal and support those overcome by poverty and justice around the world.

Each year, Caritas creates a Lenten Reflection Programme to support parishes, communties, families and individuals as they pray and spend time with the gospels during Lent. The programme's booklets are available free on the Caritas' Website: https://caritas.org.nz/lent

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'NZ CATHOLIC'

Website: http://www.nzcatholic.org.nz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NZ-Catholic/262886647205656
Full text articles: https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/2020/

In issue no. 583, February 23 - March 7 2020: Change of venue for ordination of Michael Gielen; Wgtn conference to look at ministry to youth and families; Amazon document a challenge for NZ; Abortion bill process panned by pro-life groups; Coronavirus  crisis prompts prayers at Mass; Royal Commission to look at redress issues; Editorial: Biblke lessons have a place; the Lent appeal 2020 (2-page feature); Catholic school open days (4-page advertising feature); Book review: See, Judge, Act: Training Catholic activists in New Zealand; Anniversary celebration at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River; Helen Luxford's Family Matters: Coronavirus;

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FROM THE SECULAR PRESS

Catholic Bishops Warn Proposed Abortion Law Removes Tenuous Unborn Rights
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2002/S00158/catholic-bishops-warn-proposed-abortion-law-removes-tenuous-unborn-rights.htm
New Zealand's Catholic bishops are concerned that unborn babies will lose their existing tenuous legal rights if Parliament passes the Abortion Legislation Bill in the form proposed by a select committee. And unborn babies with a fetal disability will have even less protection than under the current law, the bishops note...

Public showdown coming on Central Otago plan for Olive Leaf building
https://www.stuff.co.nz/otago/119734969/public-showdown-coming-on-central-otago-plan-for-olive-leaf-building
Attempts to avoid a council hearing over a controversial Olive Leaf church proposal in Central Otago have been rejected and the plan will go to a public showdown in May. The developers have described the leaf-shaped church building as a "gift" to the Catholic parish and wider community in Arrowtown.

An enduring affair
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/enduring-affair
Celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary today are Bernice and George Beckwith, of Alexandra.
The couple met in Dunedin and married at St Mary's Catholic church in Dunedin in 1955.

School lends helping hand in Gore
https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/dairy-news/dairy-general-news/school-lends-helping-hand-in-gore
A school in Gore has lent a hand in the Southland clean-up effort. When Dairy News visited, Darren Jack, deputy principal of Gore's co-ed Catholic secondary school, St Peter's College, was mucking in with a vanload of about a dozen of his students, clearing debris from fences on a dairy farm bordering the Mataura River a few kilometres south of Gore.

St Mary's College student assaulted on school grounds by former student
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/119723180/st-marys-college-student-assaulted-on-school-grounds-by-former-student
 On Thursday afternoon, a student from St Mary's College was assaulted by a former student on school grounds.