Catholic Church

Seabed mining: Destruction vs development

These were the words of Bishop Charles Drennan from New Zealand.

He is part of the 80-man delegation that is in the country to attend the Assembly of Federation of Catholic Bishops Conference Oceania.

The vast ocean is the common home of countries and people in the Oceania Region.

The sub-theme; “A Sea of Possibilities”, captures the interdependency between the ocean and the people.

“The land and the sea depend so much on each other and therefore for the well-being of us and the future generations,” said Bishop Charles.

Shortage of priests in Catholic Church

General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and Solomon Islands, Fr Victor Roche, says although PNG and the Oceania region are not directly affected by this, the Catholic Church in the Oceania region is determined to address this during the Assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conference of Oceania this month.

“The Conference will be an opportune time to reflect on this, specifically on youths, their faith and their vocation,” added Fr Victor.

Catholics light second candle of Advent

In the Catholic Church, Advent is a period of preparation, extending over four Sundays, before Christmas.

At the St Joseph Parish in Port Moresby, Father Paul explained that the first candle that was lit last Sunday represents Hope in Christ.

It is to remind Catholic faithful of Jesus Christ, the saviour born a king in the line of King David and the belief that he will come again to fulfill all of God’s promises to mankind.

The second candle lit today was the candle of peace.

The Pope and President: Unpredictable pair finally meet

There, at the Apostolic Palace, Trump met with Pope Francis -- finally.

It's a meeting millions have been waiting for, an encounter between two of the world's most intriguing and complex characters: The holy man in white who preaches good news to the poor and the brash businessman in the dark suit who embodies American extravagance.

Bishop of Kerema given higher calling

Fr. Peter Baquero was born in Manila (Philippines) on September 15, 1970, and made perpetual profession in 1998 and was ordained in 1999 in Parañaque.

From the period of his practical training in PNG he followed the missionary vocation ad gentes.

Pope urges 'zero tolerance' of abuse in letter

In a letter sent on 28 December but released by the Vatican on Monday, the pope said he begged forgiveness for "a sin that shames us".

"I would like us to renew our complete commitment to ensuring that these atrocities will no longer take place in our midst."

Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has taken some steps to root out sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and introduce practices to protect children. But victims' groups say he has not done enough, particularly to hold to account bishops who tolerated sexual abuse or covered it up.

New Cardinal Sir John grateful for appointment

Cardinals are personally selected by the Pope. Pope Francis announced the new cardinals from the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of a special Mass on Sunday, October 9, in the Vatican.

The 59-year-old is among 17 cardinals selected by the pope and is now the sixth cardinal ever selected from the Oceania region.

The group includes men from five countries that had never before had a cardinal, namely PNG, Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, Lesotho and Malaysia.

Pope: Church should ask forgiveness from gay people for past treatment

He also said the Church should ask forgiveness for the way it had treated women, for turning a blind eye to child labour, and for "blessing so many weapons" in the past.

He made the comments while speaking to reporters aboard a plane taking him back to Rome from Armenia.

In the hour-long freewheeling conversation that has become a trademark of his international travels, Pope Francis was asked if he agreed with recent comments by a German Roman Catholic cardinal that the Church should apologise to gay people.

Pope Francis to look at opening door to female deacons in Church

In apparently off-the-cuff remarks the 79-year-old pontiff promised to examine whether women could join the clergy at the rank of deacon, 

The pledge came in a question and answer session with members of female religious orders during a meeting at the Vatican.

In the exchanges, Pope Francis said he had discussed the use of female deacons in the early centuries of the Church with experts on the subject but was not clear as to their exact role and status.

Youths to lead Stations of the Cross in NCD

According to the Archdiocese of Port Moresby the route will start at the St John’s Parish at 4am led by the St John’s parish.

Station 2 will be at TST Fire where St Pauls’s parish will lead with the prayers then on to the Kone Tigers area where St Charles parish will receive the cross.

The fourth station at Dream Inn will be led by Mary Queen of the Pacific and UPNG Youths, then St Martin de Porres youths will lead at station 5 at the Vulupindi bus stop.