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

NZ CATHOLIC BISHOPS' CONFERENCE

http://www.cathcom.org.nz

Catholic bishops challenge society not to legalise assisted suicide (March 25, 2010)

The New Zealand Catholic bishops' bioethics agency - The Nathaniel Centre - says that Margaret Page's decision to end her life by refusing food and fluids raises serious ethical and moral issues, not just legal ones. Director of The Nathaniel Centre, Fr Michael McCabe, says an important aspect seems to have been overlooked: "Mrs Page is severely disabled as a result of a cerebral haemorrhage: she is not terminally ill," he says...

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

'NZ CATHOLIC' - No. 337, Mar 28 - April 10 2010

http://www.nzcatholic.org.nz

In this issue ... Spy base verdicts hailed overseas ... 250 to enter church at Easter ... Kiwi kids pleasantly surprise visiting sister from Tonga .. Religious studies for all schools promoted ... Former St John Of God principal dies ... 10 new seminarians a diverse lot ... Pew Point: For heaven's sake put abused kids first .. Barry Irvine: We are Easter people in a Good Friday world ... Easter Mass times for travellers ... The Stations of the Cross through the eyes of Mary ... Advertising features: Divine Mercy Sunday: April 11 2010 .. 17th Eucharistic Convention

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

FROM THE SECULAR PRESS

No seats for inveterate politician (photo)
http://tinyurl.com/yabcca3
Terry Heffernan loved politics. He soaked it up from his Irish grandfather and West Coast father. He stood for Parliament in five electorates and for four parties. Yet though he came close, he never won a seat.

Pupils pull up socks with points scheme (photo)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3514288/Pupils-pull-up-socks-with-points-scheme
Pupils at a Wellington school who get into fights or forget to do their homework will clock up demerit points. The system at St Patrick's College in Kilbirnie has proved so popular with parents that the school plans to let them monitor their children's points online.

Long-term beneficiaries target only of rhetoric
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1003/S00442.htm
Catholic social justice agency Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand says the punitive language used by Government Ministers in announcing planned welfare changes this week is entirely inappropriate for both the economic reality and the actual focus of the changes.

Welfare changes 'harmful'
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/98808/welfare-changes-039harmful039
The Government was "kicking people when they're down", Dunedin Methodist Mission chief executive Laura Black said last night. She was responding to questions about welfare changes announced on Monday.

CK Stead wins inaugural Sunday Times short story award (photo)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10634715
77-year-old New Zealand writer CK Stead has just added the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award to his considerable list of achievements. Stead was presented with his £25,000 (NZ$52,635) prize, for his story Last Season's Man which was chosen the best of 1152 entries from published authors around the world. Stead's short story unfolds in Croatia, where a young writer writes an article criticising a respected elder, bruising his ego and damaging his reputation among the intellectual community.

Bid to stop school shifting fails (photo)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10634428
Auckland City Mayor John Banks and his Citizens & Ratepayers allies last night defeated the latest attempt to prevent Monte Cecilia Primary School from shifting at a cost of at least $15 million to ratepayers.

Council challenged on Monte Cecilia School "facts"
Press Release: City Vision 23-3-2010 16:06
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1003/S00350.htm
A list of "facts" about Monte Cecilia School, which was tacked on to a council resolution at the last heated meeting of Auckland City Council, is now being challenged by one third of the Council.

It's fun to run at St Pat's (photo)
Taupo Times
http://tinyurl.com/y8nhq2e
St Patrick's Catholic School students are getting excited and training hard for the fun run/walk taking place on Saturday.

Catholic concern over 'right to die' (photo)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/3514439/Catholic-concern-over-right-to-die
Catholic bishops have weighed in on Wellington woman Margaret Page's right to starve herself to death, saying pro-euthanasia groups are exploiting the case to promote assisted suicide.

Pretzels the ultimate symbol of Easter (photo)
The Horowhenua Mail
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/horowhenua-mail/3511299/
While many kids can think of nothing but Easter eggs as the holiday approaches, the humble pretzel is more of an emblem for Easter, says the principal of a Levin school. The first pretzels were baked to remind people to pray during Lent, the six weeks of reflective time for Easter, said St Joseph's Catholic School principal Stasia Kennedy.

Students form mass choir for cathedral festival (photo)
http://tinyurl.com/ykwtr77
More than 500 pupils from 12 Christchurch Catholic schools joined in a music festival at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

Providing a safeplace to excel is St Pat's Silverstream's goal (Advertsing feature)
The Dominion Post
http://tinyurl.com/yhxq87x
Boarding has always been an important part of St Patrick's College, Silverstream. The aim, says boarding director Nick Tait, is to give the students an experience which they can look back on with fondness.

Prisoner gives back (full text)
http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/98937/arty-facts-news-art-world
The desire to give children the opportunities he did not have has motivated a prisoner serving a life sentence to donate a sculpture for auction by the Nano Nagle Charitable Trust. "I want to help any way I can to stop any person growing up like I have. I want to stop kids taking the same paths that I did," he said. The sculpture, titled New Beginnings - New Life, is made of paua and bone and represents the beginning of life from infancy to adulthood. The sculpture is to be auctioned online and all proceeds will go to the trust, which was formed by the Presentation Sisters and associates to help children unable to receive a Catholic education because of financial hardship. The auction will run for a week from Monday. For further information contact: Sr Noreen McGrath on (03) 417-4003.

Big year for Hutt rugby (photos)
Hutt News
Part one: http://tinyurl.com/ybdup74
Part two: 'Top sides to celebrate milestones': http://tinyurl.com/ycamq4g
Hutt Old Boys Marist rugby club will be celebrating their 100 years during the last weekend of June.

Easter play inspirational (photo)
Franklin County News
http://tinyurl.com/yedxnmz
A group of Catholic parishes around Franklin have come together to create something not seen in Pukekohe before. Three Catholic parishes from Pukekohe, Tuakau and Waiuku got together recently to talk about what to plan for Lent, or Easter.

The young and the faithful
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/have-your-say/news/the-young-and-the-faithful/3911536/
Easter. To Christians, it's the most important festival of the year, the celebration of the events on which their religion is founded. Modern Auckland is a city of many faiths. Four young people tell Joanna Davies of their beliefs, and how they affect their daily lives.

Teschemakers property for sale
http://www.odt.co.nz/the-regions/central-otago/98796/teschemakers-property-sale
Teschemakers, the former Catholic girls' boarding school now owned by a Japanese company, is for sale. The 29ha property, just south of Oamaru, has the original Teschemakers homestead, is in three titles and includes a dormitory block, classrooms, chapel, swimming pool and other facilities, all in a park setting.

Government Pulls Up Its Socks On Children's Work
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/government-pulls-its-socks-children039s-work-caritas/5/42682
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand welcomes the Department of Labour's consultation and associated research report on children's work experiences - six years after the Catholic social justice agency drew attention to the lack of protection for many children in paid employment.

Better playground on way after gala
Northern Advocate - A015 - 22 March 2010
A community event dating back nearly three decades, drew hundreds of people and raked in much-needed cash for projects at a prominent Whangarei school. Helpers from as far as Kaikohe were at St Francis Xavier Catholic School on Saturday, manning food or clothing stalls or helping with children's rides for the school's annual gala....

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

INSPIRATIONAL TV

http://inspirationaltv.net

** Preparing for Easter **
With the youth group of St Elizabeth's Anglican Church, Manurewa, and featuring the local community of the Assyrian Church of the East

** Easter **
The Crucifixion (Luke 23:33-47): a reading and discussion with Rev Dr Raymond Pelley and Very Rev Frank Nelson at St Paul's Cathedral, Wellington.

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

'BEING FRANK' - New Zealand Catholic blogs

http://www.beingfrank.co.nz

** Facebook Experiment (reactions to a picture of an aborted fetus)
** "Let us say the Lord's prayer 40 times, but first let's pass the collection plate" (church funding)
** Fighting the good fight. (conforming to Christ)
** The Spirit's Lenten quad-call to mercy. (becoming conscious of God's mercy)
** Destroying spy bases will only lead to more wars, more violence and more deaths
** When the bare branch breaks ("Gendercide: the worldwide war on baby girls")

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

NEW ZEALAND COMMENTARIES ON THE SUNDAY READINGS

Living the Word - Fr Frank Bird sm
http://livingtheword.wordpress.com

Reflect - Veronica Lawson RSM
http://www.welcom.org.nz/?sid=394

Daily Reflections (right-hand column)
http://www.maristmessenger.co.nz

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

ALL THINGS CATHOLIC, by John L. Allen, Jr.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic

Keeping the record straight on Benedict and the crisis
http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/keeping-record-straight-benedict-and-crisis

Intense scrutiny is being devoted these days to Pope Benedict XVI's history on the sex abuse crisis. Revelations from Germany have put his five years as a diocesan bishop under a spotlight, and a piece on Thursday in The New York Times, on the case of Fr. Lawrence Murphy of Milwaukee, also called into question his Vatican years as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Yet as always, the first casualty of any crisis is perspective. There are at least three aspects of Benedict's record on the sexual abuse crisis which are being misconstrued, or at least sloppily characterized, in today's discussion. Bringing clarity to these points is not a matter of excusing the pope, but rather of trying to understand accurately how we got where we are...

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

FACEBOOK

Bishop Pat Dunn's diary
http://www.facebook.com/bishoppatrick

Catholic Discipleship College
http://www.facebook.com/cdcnz

'The Fifteenth Station'
http://www.facebook.com/station15

Youth for Family and Life (YFL) New Zealand
http://ko-kr.facebook.com/pages/Youth-for-Family-and-Life-YFL-New-Zealand/292888828797

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

WORLD NEWS OF THE CHURCH

http://www.nzcatholic.org.nz

http://www.romereports.com (video)

http://www.youtube.com/vatican (news of Pope Benedict - video)

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

EVENTS

Eucharistic Convention 2010
April 9-11 Westlake Boys High Auditorium, Takapuna, North Shore, Auckland
Convention Website:
http://www.eucharistic-convention.com/q_2010/q_2010_menu.htm
Convention Social Networking Site: http://eucharist.ning.com

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

EMPLOYMENT

[Teaching vacancies in New Zealand Catholic schools are advertised in the Vacancies section of the Education Gazette: http://www.edgazette.govt.nz ]

[Vacancies for Catholic youth workers are advertised on the Vacancies page of Connect.org.nz: http://www.connect.org.nz ]

Fundraising Co-ordinator, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
http://www.caritas.org.nz
Details in 'NZ Catholic' Mar 28 - April 10 2010 p.26, and from Claire Beaumont, claire@caritas.org.nz ; tel: (04) 496 1742 Applications close 12 April 2010.