Philippines

friendship’s sake

Dec 11, 2016

I have spent the weekend in the Philippines (Manila and Cebu) and today head home to NZ. The brief visit was an opportunity to meet with friends in both cities and to...

Filipino evangelists

Feb 7, 2016

In the parish of the Good Shepherd, Hurunui, a significant number of our parishioners have arrived here in recent years from the Philippines. Their presence is a great...

present reality

May 17, 2015

Our gathering for the Spiritual Exercises continues today after a full Friday evening and Saturday. Late in April more than 25.000 people met in Rimini (on the Adriatic...

NZ speaks in Rome

Mar 6, 2015

I picked up a copy of the Vatican Newspaper yesterday and was not surprised to see an interview with Cardinal John Dew. Pope Francis is attracted to peripheries and New...

a Saturday…

Feb 28, 2015

The Catholic communities of the Hurunui district are small and spread around a large rural hinterland. Since my arrival in the parish just over three years ago the...

Filipino farewell

Jan 20, 2015

Yesterday the Philippines farewelled Pope Francis after three remarkable days of friendship. It is worth searching the visit online for some of the video clips and...

loss & hope

Jan 17, 2015

When I passed St. Joseph's Papanui yesterday morning there was very little remaining of the church building, just the doors through which so many have passed seeking...

Filipino faith

Jan 16, 2015

Pope Francis is in the Philippines today and over the past couple of hours he has been celebrating the first Mass of his three-day visit in the Cathedral Basilica of...

pressing on

May 5, 2014

Late last week I arrived in the Philippines for a series of retreats / spiritual exercises with communities in General Santos, Manila and Cebu. Yesterday I completed...

Philippines – light a candle

Nov 10, 2013

In the last few minutes news reports have estimated that the death toll in yesterday's Philippines Typhoon is in the vicinity of 10.000 people. A number of readers of...