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FROM THE SECULAR PRESS
Special day for schools (photo) http://tinyurl.com/bxvfn Sacred Heart, an 80-pupil school in Northeast Valley, Dunedin, yesterday joined schools around the country in celebrating Catholic Schools Day with fun classroom activities, a prayer assembly and a community barbecue for morning tea...
Doubt about shroud turns to faith http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124235 American photographer Barrie Schwortz brings to Auckland next week the first replica of the Shroud of Turin, a linen cloth that bears the image of a man who appears to have been crucified. Believers consider it to be Jesus' burial shroud. Sceptics dismiss it as a medieval hoax....
Spiritual journey calls for Peter (photo) http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,3269334a13575,00.html Cambridge Catholic parishioner Peter O'Halloran hopes to meet the new Pope this year when he goes to Germany for a world youth gathering. A youth worker for the Waikato Diocese Peter, helps out with education, resources and running youth groups within Hamilton and surrounding areas....
Providing reference point, by Ian Harris, a journalist and commentator. Otago Daily Times http://tinyurl.com/bu4bo There is a view running through large sections of New Zealand education that children should be kept ignorant of religion. It is not usually expressed so starkly, but that is the practical effect. A British educationist not only challenges this negative orientation, but has exposed how much of value New Zealand children are missing out on - and not only in state schools....
Life and times of a lucky doctor http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/topstories/4%20may05_lifeandtimes.html Is it the luck of the Irish keeping Simon Cotton living with the "best of everything", or something special about the man himself? As one of six children in a Roman Catholic family, he has much to say about his childhood in Ireland, and has related it all in his first book, Henry's Camelot...
Group opposing "Dr Death's" registration http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsfeature.asp?storyID=71949 Australia's so-called "Dr Death" is looking at setting up in New Zealand because of a proposed law change across the Tasman. An amendment to Australia's Crimes Bill, expected to be passed this year, means it will become illegal to pass out information on assisted suicide. Euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke, director of Exit International, says the new law can be circumvented by conducting operations from another country....
'Crisis of spirit' hits health of NZ men http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10124309 New Zealand men are dying because of "a crisis of the spirit" and despair at what life has to offer, a summit has heard....
Vatican to world: 25 million Dan Brown fans can be wrong. But what is the secret of The Da Vinci Code's success? (3 pages) New Zealand Listener April 30-May 6 2005 http://www.listener.co.nz/default,3890.sm And that was appointed last month as the Da Vinci Code-buster is an indication of how seriously the Vatican takes the book - Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa, is closely affiliated with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, himself John Paul II's ideological right-hand man. "The book is everywhere," Cardinal Bertone complained to the Italian media. Indeed, in the two years since publication, only the Bible has outsold it. "There is a very real risk that many people who read it will believe that the fables it contains are true . It astonishes and worries me that so many people believe these lies"....
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The following stories are not available on the papers' free Websites. They can be read at the public library, and via the libraries' Newztext service for borrowers.
All in the name of fun (photo) The Nelson Mail, 6 May 2005, Edition 2, Page 14. St Joseph's School took their theme - Catholic school is fun - for Catholic Schools' Day yesterday, very seriously. Students watched a plastic duck race on the Maitai River, with the winning duck, representing room five and teacher Colleen Nicholson, earning them 15 minutes free time today...
Story close to the heart Central Leader - Auckland - 6 May 2005 Ross Duncan welcomed a long lost uncle who never returned from World War I when the remains of the Unknown Warrior came home to New Zealand soil on Armistice Day last year. The veteran actor is tapping into that personal identity as he plays an old soldier reluctantly recounting the tragedy of the Great War in the play Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. Written by a Catholic, the play is a tale of eight young Protestants from Northern Ireland marching towards certain death in World War I. On the way, they become disillusioned with their hatred of Catholics, their country and religion...
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POPE BENEDICT XVI
Pope pledges to defend faith against fashion http://tinyurl.com/aqlov Rome (Reuters) - Pope Benedict pledged on Saturday to follow the strict line of his predecessor and defend traditional Catholic teachings from "fashionable" ideas that threaten to destroy the faith...
The new spirit of Germany http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/archive_db.cgi/tablet-01023 If Benedict XVI's nationality offers a signpost to his papacy, it points firmly down the road of ecumenism and collegiality, both part of a rich tradition lost under Bismarck and Hitler and rediscovered in his youth ....
Metamorphosis in the making (Editorial ) http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/archive_db.cgi/tablet-01022 Observers were a little surprised to see the emphasis the new Pope put in his first address on the importance of Christian unity. Benedict XVI, speaking to the cardinals who had just elected him in the Sistine Chapel, said the quest for full visible Christian unity was to be the "primary commitment" of his Petrine ministry....
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FROM THE OVERSEAS CATHOLIC PRESS & NEWS AGENCIES
San Francisco Archbishop tipped for Pope's old job http://www.cathnews.com/news/505/28.php Chair of the US Bishops' doctrine committee Archbishop William Levada is rumoured to be the favoured candidate to be named prefect of Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith....
The Pope was an actor all his life Damian Thompson reviews Universal Father: a Life of Pope John Paul II by Garry O'Connor. http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/04/24/booco24.x\ ml
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MARIST MESSENGER
The monthly magazine of the NZ Society of Mary
http://www.maristmessenger.co.nz/index.php
From the May 2005 issue (full text) ....
The Magnificat Community The Editor writes a Report on a Lay Catholic community in rural Wairarapa in New Zealand
Tribute to Pope John Paul 2 Carl Telford sm, former Messenger Editor , contributes a brief tribute to the late Pontiff. Monthly Editorial Focus
The Pentecost Event is on-going and reached New Zealand via Lyons in France
Homily for Anzac Day Fr Brian Wysocki speaks of war and forgiveness at St Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington,
Also in the May issue ... * Forty-four Hours in Lourdes * Saint Gianna Molla * The Shroud of Turin * Blessings at my Feet - poem * May Milestones
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CARITAS AOTEAROA NZ
http://www.caritas.org.nz/NEWSROOM Parliament, 12 Noon: The Place to be on Thursday 12 May 6 May, 2005: The handover ceremony for the 0.7 petition which calls on the government to honour its promise to meet the United Nations target of giving 0.7% of national income in overseas aid by 2015 takes place at Parliament on 12 May....more
Fair Trade Fortnight 7 - 21 May 6 May 2005: Caritas supports Fair Trade Fortnight and we encourage Caritas supporters to as well. By supporting Fair Trade practices you are helping producers and communities in need to earn a fair price for their goods, and so giving them a sustainable future ...more
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WORLD YOUTH DAY, COLOGNE, GERMANY 16-21 August 2005
Official site of the New Zealand National Pilgrimage to WYD, Cologne http://www.worldyouthday.org.nz En route to World Youth Day, our representatives will follow the path of St Paul to the sites of the early Christian communities in Greece and Turkey, as well as a visit to Gallipoli and Anzac Cove. Then its off to Cologne, Germany for World Youth Day 2005, the Catholic Church's mega event -hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world coming together, united around Pope John Paul, listening to the Word of God, assisting at celebrations and participating in a festival of joy... See the NZ World Youth Day Website for further info., or write to: Bill Dysart, C-58 Osier Road, Greenmeadows, Napier. Email: ymachb@clear.net.nz
In preparation for World Youth Day 3,000 young people from 20 countries will take part in an Ignatian experience to promote greater awareness of God's presence in daily life http://www.fides.org/eng/news/2005/0504/28_4744.html
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Other WYD links:
The official international WYD Site: http://www.wjt2005.de/index.php?id=6&si=1
The Vatican's WYD Website: http://www.vatican.va/gmg/documents/gmg_2005_en.html
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EVENTS
Palmerston North Diocese: Jubilee Celebration of the Consecration of the Diocese 7 May - 26 June 2005 Details on http://www.pndiocese.org.nz
"The History and Science of The Shroud of Turin" (Exhibition) From 13 May 2005 "for a limited time" Lower NZI, Aotea Centre, THE EDGE, Auckland, New Zealand Full description on: http://www.shroud.co.nz/Exhibition.htm and: http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/Ticketek/pipeline/ticketselect.asp?nt=THESHROUD&sc\ =THESHROUD
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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 ]
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