Saint Pauls parish Newsletter
The Catholic Youth Office is hosting a festive Christmas dinner on the 11th of December for those experiencing homelessness. It will be a wonderful evening of great food, Christmas carols and gifts. We are looking for specific donations to be able to create care packages for our brothers and sisters who are doing it tough. A list of donations we are seeking can be found by clicking here. Donations can be sent to/ dropped off at the Chanel Centre (during alert level 2). Thank you for your generosity.
We have had the plan translated into te reo. How many copies would your parish like? Please fill in this form and they will be distributed at the end of this month.
Any queries, please contact Brigid Conroy brigidc@cdh.org.nz
NZ Catholic bishops urge everyone to have a Covid-19 vaccine
The country’s Catholic bishops are strongly urging their faithful and everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand to get a Covid-19 vaccine when it becomes available.
NZ Catholic Bishops Conference President, Cardinal John Dew, cited this country’s 2019-20 measles epidemic and the endorsement of Covid-19 vaccines by Pope Francis as reasons the bishops are calling on everyone to get vaccinated.
Pope Francis this week lamented that some people were saying they would refuse vaccination, adding: “I believe that morally, everyone must take the vaccine. It is the moral choice because it is about your life [and] the lives of others.”
Cardinal Dew said the Pope had made it clear there was no religious reason to reject vaccination, including that some vaccines were created with cell lines that originated from tissue from human fetuses aborted several decades ago.
Catholic teaching opposes abortion, but the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith office has said the “grave danger” of spreading Covid-19 outweighs those concerns when “ethically irreproachable vaccines are not available.” It was “morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.” Pope Francis endorsed that statement last month, on 17 December.
Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI were both vaccinated against Covid-19 this week at the Vatican.
Cardinal Dew said the bishops took their advice about vaccines from reputable doctors, scientists and the bishops’ own bioethics agency, the Nathaniel Centre.
“We reject the false information circulating on the internet and elsewhere that claims vaccines should not be used,” Cardinal Dew said. “Vaccines work, and they protect against a wide range of illnesses. Because of vaccines, once-universal diseases such as smallpox have been wiped out, saving countless lives.
“To protect everyone against a disease, it is vital that most people in a country be vaccinated. The 2019-20 New Zealand measles epidemic happened because only about 80 per cent of the population were vaccinated. As a result, the disease was carried from Auckland to Samoa where more than 80 people died, most of them babies and children.
“Everyone, including Catholics, has a moral responsibility to protect themselves and others by getting a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as they become eligible for it under the Government’s planned vaccine programme,” said Cardinal Dew.
The Vatican doctrinal office statement endorsed by the Pope said that all vaccinations recognised as clinically safe and effective could “be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive.”
Click on these links for further information:
• Pope Francis saying people have a moral obligation to be vaccinated, click here
• The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith December 21 note saying it is morally acceptable to use Covid-19 vaccines derived from fetus cell lines, click here
• Pope Francis endorses CDF note, click here
• Nathaniel Report article on the ethics of vaccines derived from fetus cell lines, click here
• NZ Catholic article by Nathaniel Centre director Dr John Kleinsman report on the ethics of Covid-19 vaccines, click here
• NZ Catholic article discussing Covid-19 vaccines, click here
| Kia ora! Welcome to the October update from Te Rōpū Tautoko, the group coordinating Catholic engagement with the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care. As well as a helpful resource each month to keep you updated on the latest work of the Royal Commission, we hope that you will find this useful in updating people in your organisations. Please pass this on to your contacts that you think might find this useful; they can subscribe to receive it directly. |
| Share your experiences with the Royal Commission Contact the Royal Commission on their website > Tautoko encourages survivors of abuse in the care of the Catholic Church to share their experiences with the Royal Commission. If you or someone you know wishes to share your experience please visit their website or phone the Royal Commission on 0800 222 727. |
| Updates Please use these in your briefings and newsletters as an update of what Te Rōpū Tautoko and others are currently working on: New ‘Roadmap’ page on website This ‘roadmap’ takes the Church’s response to the recommendations and themes arising from the hearings and puts it into specific actions many of which can be undertaken now as the Commission process continues. You will see the status reports contained in the roadmap which will be updated as things progress. This work is at the the heart of our mission as a Church and it falls on all of us here and now to act. View online now > |
| Māori translation now available on the Tautoko website Māori translation is provided for much of the text, such as headings, and information that remains static for long periods. This can be accessed by selecting ‘Māori’ via a drop-down menu on the home page. More text will be translated in the future. Visit our website > |
| Marylands Hearing delayed This significant hearing into the former residential school run by the Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God in Halswell, Christchurch was to be held in late November. The Hearing has been delayed due to difficulties around COVID lockdowns. As soon as a date is set Tautoko will advise. |
| Prayer Please include this in your Prayers of the Faithful or other intercessions. We pray for all those who will work towards transformation and change in all areas of our Church. Inspire them always, to continue in their work, and to look for ways we can all be the kind of Church God calls us to be. Renew in each one of us our sense of calling to be a missionary people, growing in our understanding and fervor for what is at the heart of our mission. |
| Action View the Roadmap for responding to the recommendations and themes arising from the Royal Commission > Please visit our website to look at our new and significant piece of work – the Roadmap – outlining the Church’s work responding to the recommendations, themes and learnings from the Royal Commission process. As you will see from the status reports on each action there is much the Church can and has started on now, even while the Royal Commission work continues. While Tautoko will lead this work plan it reminds us all that we all have a part to play in this which is at the heart of our mission as a missionary people. |
| Invite others to receive these emails. Tell them to visit tautoko.catholic.org.nz/signup or click here to share it with them. |
| We’re deeply appreciative of the prayerful support and work of Dioceses and Congregational Leaders, and the various volunteers and staff, in gathering the information and records that we require and the Commission requests, which is our current focus. From the time Bishops and Congregational Leaders asked for the Government to include Churches in the Terms of References they have continued to express that this is a necessary and significant step in the process of justice for survivors. If you have any queries or would like to let us know of anything you’d find useful to be included in this newsletter please contact us by replying to this email. |