WelCom is the official monthly newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington and the Diocese of Palmerston North and is free in all parish churches and schools in the two dioceses.
As well as reporting on activities that occur in the two dioceses, WelCom aims to present educative and thought-provoking articles about the Church in the world.
WelCom August 2018: The doors to the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Hill St, Wellington, that have welcomed parishioners, visitors and concert goers for decades, have been closed following a Structural Engineer’s report in July. The experiences of the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes have made it prudent for building owners to reassess their buildings. The
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WelCom August 2018: A time for us to deepen our faith communities and to hear the Word of God Cardinal John Dew, Archbishop of Wellington On 7 April 2005 I was led to the Cathedral (Bishop’s Chair) in Sacred Heart Cathedral and installed as the 7th Archbishop of Wellington. Little did I know then, that just over
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WelCom August 2018: Bishop Charles Drennan A highlight of my year is the annual Vocations Retreat. It brings a good dollop of hope to the Diocese. The elderly often accompany the weekend with their fervent prayers. Simply to know that it is happening uplifts everyone, perhaps in the same kind of way we feel when another
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WelCom August 2018: Mark Richards Sunday 1 July 2018 was a wonderful day of faith, celebration and joy in the Catholic Parish of Hastings – Te Pārihi Katorika ki Heretaunga. Tevita Fakaosi was ordained to the permanent diaconate at Mass in the Church of St Peter Chanel. Tevita was surrounded by all his family, the Pasifika
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WelCom August 2018: Annette Scullion New Zealand Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Martin Krebs, bids farewell to Aotearoa-New Zealand this month as the Pope’s representative to New Zealand and neighbouring Pacific Island nations. WelCom interviewed Archbishop Krebs before his departure. Q. Please describe the role of Apostolic Nuncio. The role is two-fold to promote identity and openness. I
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WelCom August 2018: He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, the people, the people The 2018 Māori Pastoral Care Appeal for the Archdiocese of Wellington takes place on Sunday, 26 August and at Vigil Masses on
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WelCom August 2018: Pope Francis is asking us to ensure everyone feels included in our parishes. When a marriage fails and peoples’ circumstances change, those affected can feel like they are no longer welcome in our communities and at Mass. This should not be the case. Cardinal John warmly invites all who are affected by divorce
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WelCom August 2018: The Church describes Sunday as the ‘foremost holy day of obligation’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n 2177). Other ‘holy days of obligation’ have always been added to the Sundays. In New Zealand, we now have only two of these additional holy days of obligation – Christmas Day and the feast of the
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WelCom August 2018: John 6: 24-35 24 When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26 Jesus answered: In all
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WelCom August 2018: Te Wiki Aroā mō Ngā Karanga Tūranga Hāhi a Motu ki Aotearoa, 5-12 Ākuhata 2018 To highlight National Vocations Awareness Week, 5–12 August 2018, WelCom presents reflections from a range of voices in our dioceses. The Good News Fr Bryan Buenger The truth is there are places in the world, Asia, parts of
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WelCom August 2018: Mark Richards Vocation – what does it mean today? On Sunday 15 July, I heard it in the readings: ‘He sent them out in pairs’, to interface with people just as they were. They didn’t have any books or aids, material helps; in fact he sent them without a spare tunic, without food
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WelCom August 2018: Fr Neil Vaney sm Loneliness in Our World Rightly famous is Thomas Merton’s insight on the corner of Louisville and Walnut in Kentucky “…I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs.” The Cistercian monk who had fled what he saw as
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WelCom August 2018: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand and the Wellington and Palmerston North Justice and Peace Commissions are holding interactive workshops on disability and participation in our community, through the lens of Catholic social teaching. The workshops will look at disability and participation in a local context, using the process of ‘See, Judge, and Act’. The
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WelCom August 2018: Following media reports in July 2018 about historical abuse claims involving Dominican priest, the late Michael Shirres op, WelCom contacted the Provincial of the Dominican Province for New Zealand and Australia, Fr Anthony Walsh op. Fr Anthony has provided the following statement. The abuse committed by Michael Shirres will have had a devastating
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WelCom August 2018: For the past four years, Pā Maria Marist Spirituality Centre in Hobson St, Wellington, has been hosting a Winter Film Series as a gathering that offers an Ignatian framework for prayer, reflection and discernment. Brian Cummings sm, Director at Pā Maria, explains. Prayer with Movies The Winter film series began in 2015 with
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WelCom August 2018: The Compassion Soup Kitchen in Wellington, which has been run by the Sisters of Compassion for over 100 years, was honoured as Supreme Winner at the 2018 Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards ceremony on 26 July. They also won the Health and Well-being category. Karen Holland, manager of the Compassion Soup Kitchen, said,
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WelCom August 2018: Leading community engagement through social enterprise Annette Scullion Students at St John’s College continue to gain recognition for their business and social enterprise projects and initiatives. These include water-quality and weather-forecasting systems and community-based partnerships. Students and teachers are working with businesses and government organisations to take their developments to market and expand
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WelCom August 2018: Annette Scullion More than 100 representatives of the Catholic Women’s League Aotearoa New Zealand ‒ Te Roopu Wahine Katorika o Aotearoa convened in Kilbirnie, Wellington, 25‒28 July, for their national biennial conference. Delegates represented New Zealand’s six dioceses, with 35 members from the Wellington Archdiocese and 12 from Palmerston North Diocese. There was
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WelCom August 2018: A Memorial Mass was held at St Mary’s Church Foxton on Sunday 15 July for the 100th Anniversary of the death of Chaplain Patrick Dore who was wounded on Gallipoli and died as a result of his wounds in Auckland in 1918. He is buried in Foxton. Mass was followed by a short
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WelCom August 2018: Nelson city, on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay was established in 1841. The Māori name for Nelson is Whakatū, which means ‘build’, ‘raise’, or ‘establish’. Nelson is the oldest city in the South Island. Today the city has a population of around 50,000 with a thriving arts and crafts community and a
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WelCom August 2018: Nigel Matthews It was a great day in Upper Hutt City, as over 50 guests attended the opening of the new St John of God Clouston Park Community Home. Monsignor Gerard Burns blessed the facility and people from all around the local community, including prospective residents and their families, spent time wandering through
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WelCom August 2018: Two parishioners of the Catholic Parish of Hastings, Mrs Jillian Frizzell and Mrs Margaret Kitt, were among the recipients of the Hastings District Council’s 2018 Civic Honours Awards presented at a Council ceremony in June. Jillian is assistant principal at Hastings Girls’ High School. In her 43 years with the school she has
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WelCom August 2018: Fr Bernard O’Donnell At St Mary’s Taihape on 14 June, Marie Donovan was awarded the Benemerenti Medal for her service to the Catholic Church in Taihape. A group of local people gathered to celebrate this occasion for Marie. During the Church Service the Anointing of the Sick and Elderly was provided for those
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WelCom August 2018: Mike Conroy A national Catholic men’s event to be held for the first time in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and hosted in Auckland this September, will offer men an opportunity to come together in faith, to listen, and to improve their lives in areas they care about – faith, family, marriage, work, mates and life
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WelCom August 2018: Millie Lambess Pregnancy Assistance is one of the many free, professional support services the team at St Vincent de Paul Society in Wellington offers. Started in the early 2000s, it continues to provide an invaluable service to Wellington mothers and their babies. Based out of the newly refurbished Vinnies welfare office at 207
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WelCom August 2018: More than 13,000 especially knitted babies’ booties were displayed outside Parliament on Thursday 26 July as a ‘project of love’ and memorial to 13,285 ‘lives lost to abortion last year’. Pro-life organisers, Voice for Life, invited thousands of people from across the country to take part in knitting the booties for this public
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WelCom August 2018: Deirdre Hanlon Crowds gathered at St Anne’s Church, Newtown, in June to commemorate 183 years since the birth of Suzanne Aubert in Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay, France. Cardinal John Dew concelebrated Mass with Bishop Emeritus Stuart O’Connell and local priests. In his homily, Cardinal John said, ‘I am certain if there had not been 102 years
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WelCom August 2018: Deirdre Hanlon Two exhibitions connected to Hiruhārama-Jerusalem on the Whanganui River are showing from 22 July to 20 September at the Suzanne Aubert Heritage Centre, Our Lady’s Home of Compassion, Island Bay. ‘Burying a Poet: the Tangihanga of James K Baxter’ depicts images by photographer William Farrimond during the tangihanga on 25 October
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WelCom August 2018: Since August 2017, over 700,000 Rohingya people have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Many refugees have settled in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar in south-east Bangladesh. Though the Rohingya are now safe from persecution and being supported by organisations on the ground, they are faced with the risk of flooding from monsoon
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WelCom August 2018: New Zealanders and people from Pacific Island nations were among representatives from all over the world attending the International Conference ‘Saving our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth’ at the Vatican, 5‒6 July, to commemorate Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’ – On Care for our Common Home. The conference was
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