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 2019: Te Wiki o Ngā Karanga Tūranga Whakapono ā Motu 4–11 Akuhata 2019 National Vocations Awareness Week is a call from the Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand for vocations to ordained ministry and consecrated life and to renew our prayers and support for those considering a vocational calling. Vocations come from families, communities
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WelCom August 2019: Cardinal John Dew, Archbishop of Wellington For many years I have subscribed to the periodical entitled The Pastoral Review. It arrives from England every couple of months. I look forward to the Scripture reflections, which help me in the preparation of homilies and to the different spiritual and theological articles it provides. The May/June
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WelCom August 2019: WelCom’s Catholic Thinking article this month is by Professor Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology, University of Nottingham, UK. Professor O’Loughlin has held the Chair of Historical Theology at the University for ten years and is a priest of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on England’s south coast. Professor O’Loughlin spoke at
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WelCom August 2019: Bishop Charles Drennan, Bishop of Palmerston North Schools generate passionate discussion. Every student and parent, every community, and every society has a vested interest in education. The Church is the largest single provider of schooling in the world. The country with the most children in Catholic schools isn’t Brazil or Poland or France. It’s
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WelCom August 2019: Chris Duthie-Jung ‘Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.’ ‒ Isaiah 43:19 Many people in our parish communities are quietly and gracefully living out their Baptismal calling after experiencing a marriage
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WelCom August 2019: Te Tangohanga o Meri Takakau Tapu 15 August 2019 – 5 Akuhata 2019 Glimpsing the Joy that awaits us through Mary’s Assumption Mātakitakina te Harikoa e tāria ana mā te Tangohanga o Meri The Catholic Church in New Zealand has the Assumption of Mary as patron. The first missionary outreach to Oceania was
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WelCom August 2019: Lyndsay Freer Tim Duckworth sm has been elected to become New Zealand Provincial of the Society of Mary, to take office in early 2020. He succeeds David Kennerley sm, who will have served two, three-year terms as Provincial. In his 37 years of priesthood, Tim has served the Society of Mary and the
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WelCom August 2019: Donor Support Critical for Refugees’ Safety, Protection Amanda Gregan Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is launching an appeal this month to assist Caritas Bangladesh in their efforts to support thousands, affected by the Rohingya conflict, forced to flee Myanmar to refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. Over 900,000 Rohingya, an ethnic and religious minority people
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WelCom August 2019: Government plans to liberalise abortion laws are weeks away, not months, according to Justice Minister Andrew Little Andrew Little. Abortion is currently included in the Crimes Act, making it officially illegal. A bill that would remove abortion from the Crimes Act went before Cabinet ministers on Tuesday, 23 July 2019, for final approval.
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WelCom August 2019: Annette Scullion Parishioners in the Palmerston North Diocese and others around the country were treated to an insight about discipleship and ‘learning as Christians by doing’, by visiting historical theologian, Professor Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology, University of Nottingham, UK. Professor O’Loughlin was in New Zealand in July as one of three
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WelCom August 2019: Bishop Vincent Long of Paramatta Diocese, Australia, issued the following statement on 19 July 2019, the 6th anniversary of Australia’s mandatory and indefinite offshore detention policy. As a bishop and a former boat person, I deplore the detention of our brothers and sisters on Nauru and Manus Island. This weekend marked the sixth
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WelCom August 2019: In a hand-delivered letter last month, Pope Francis told Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad that, among other things, he is deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in northern Syria’s Idlib region, which has been the target of Russian-backed airstrikes since April. He also asked for the safe return of the millions of people displaced
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WelCom August 2019: After current supplies run out, Vatican City State will stop selling single-use plastic items. While the European Union pledged in May to ban single-use plastic from 2021, the Vatican had already begun limiting its use and soon ‘it will no longer be sold,’ said Rafael Ignacio Tornini, head of the department handling Vatican
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WelCom August 2019: This month we visit St Joseph’s Parish of Hawera, which connects the townships of Hawera, Manaia and Normanby, and surrounding farming and coastal areas. Hawera, South Taranaki’s largest town, is 71 kms south of New Plymouth on State Highway 3 and is located on State Highway 45, known as Surf Highway 45 for
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WelCom August 2019: In May 2018, Sir Brother Patrick Lynch KNZM, QSO published a book outlining the history of New Zealand’s Integrated Schools. The book covers the period from the passing of the legislation that set up the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act, which became operationalised in early 1976, to when he left the CEO role
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WelCom August 2019: In his recently completed thesis called ‘A phenomenology of the Eucharist’, Fr Kevin Connors seeks to unveil the kindness of God’s face in the Eucharist and in one another and explores the true meaning of ‘loveableness’. ‘Compared to adults, infants lack the ability to state their identity. But they still have the power
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WelCom August 2019: The 2019 Funding Round for the Archdiocesan Allocation Committee is now open. Parish groups, agencies and church organisations that provide a helping hand by supporting families and social services are now invited to apply for the annual Tindall Funding through the Archdiocesan Allocation Committee. The priority is to fund Catholic and community organisations
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WelCom August 2019: The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference have released a video to promote Catholic Prison Chaplaincy and the work of the Church in our prisons. Senior Catholic Prison Chaplain Sr Veronica Casey pbvm said, ‘This video gives a sense of what it’s like meeting with those within our prison system. A prison chaplain’s role
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WelCom August 2019: Mary Nash The Palmerston North Justice, Peace and Development Commission is a small group appointed by the Bishop for advice about advocacy and action on social justice issues in line with the Church’s social justice teachings. Through prayer and discussion, we discern how those teachings apply in our Diocese. Our Commission’s work has
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WelCom August 2019: Dr Elizabeth Julian rsm continues her eight-part series about the Old Testament. So far we have seen that the Old Testament, describing God’s love affair with a particular group of people, follows a basic storyline involving many different characters, places and events, spread over 46 books. While it is inspired in its origins
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WelCom August 2019: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 12: 13-21 Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me’. He replied to him, ‘Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?’ Then he said to the crowd, ‘Take care to guard against all greed, for though
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WelCom August 2019: ‘Sport is a very rich source of values and virtues’ – Pope Francis WelCom congratulates The Silver Ferns on their spectacular 52‒51 win over Australia in the Vitality Netball World Cup final in Liverpool, UK, 21 July 2019 – the fifth time New Zealand have won the Netball World Cup. We also congratulate
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WelCom August 2019: The annual clergy jubilee Mass for the Archdiocese of Wellington was held on Thursday 4 July at St Patrick’s Church in Kilbirnie. The church was filled with priests, friends, families, parishioners and Archdiocese of Wellington staff – all at Mass to support ordination anniversaries of 60, 50 or 25 years for 14 members
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WelCom August 2019: Bob Houston With the imminent final Mass, closure and sale of Waikanae’s Parata St site of Our Lady of Fatima Church, it’s a time of high emotion for many within Our Lady of Kāpiti Parish. Moving on is never easy, particularly when we are saying ‘goodbye’ to somewhere so many have felt so
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WelCom August 2019: Steph Grantham On Sunday 2 June Cathedral of the Holy Spirit parishioners celebrated the Liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion at the 7.30am and 9.30am Masses. Both services were led by laity due to a priest being unexpectedly unavailable. Peter Hurly led the Liturgy of the Word, Ann Austin proclaimed the Gospel,
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WelCom August 2019: On Sunday 7 July at the conclusion of 9am Mass, Bishop Owen Dolan blessed this new planting accompanied by several young members of the congregation in the grounds of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Rongotea – now in its 125th year. The planting was inspired by Pope Francis’ call to ‘care for our common
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WelCom August 2019: “He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” Luke 9:2 The annual conference of New Zealand Faith Community Nurses Association is to be held in the Wellington Anglican Cathedral of St Paul, Hill St, Thorndon, from 22 to 24 August 2019. This year’s theme is ‘Who are our
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WelCom August 2019: Tātou tātou e! All of us together! Community Networks Aotearoa and NZ Council of Christian Social Services are holding a joint conference about the value of relationships in building wellbeing. The two-day conference will be at Westpac Stadium, Pipitea, Wellington, 27‒28 August 2019. The focus will be on how to build strong relationships
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WelCom July 2019: ‘Baptised and sent: the Church of Christ on mission in the world’ – theme for Extraordinary Mission Month, October 2019. Cardinal John Dew, Archbishop of Wellington This year marks the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum illud (November 30, 1919) on the activities carried out by missionaries around the world. Pope
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WelCom July 2019: The End of Life Choice Bill is a bill before the New Zealand Parliament that seeks to give people with a terminal illness or a grievous and irremediable medical condition the option of requesting assisted dying. The first reading of the bill was in December 2017, after the bill entered the ballot in
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