Bishop Stephen Lowe appointed Catholic Bishop of Auckland
18 Dec 2021 | Church in NZ
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop of Hamilton Stephen Lowe as the new Catholic Bishop of Auckland.
The appointment was announced in Rome at midnight New Zealand time.
Bishop Lowe replaces Bishop Pat Dunn, who has served since 1994 and is retiring.
The Diocese of Auckland has almost 40 per cent of New Zealand’s 471,000 Catholics.
“I am humbled at being asked by the Holy Father to be the Bishop of Auckland and the successor of Bishop Pat Dunn, a much loved Bishop,” says Bishop Lowe.
“Auckland is our largest Diocese and our first Diocese. When I look at the bishops who have served Auckland, starting with Bishop Pompallier, they all had the challenges of their time and circumstances. But they also had their own unique gifts and talents and the gifts and talents of the people of God. So I’m looking forward to becoming part of the Diocese of Auckland as we work together for the building of God’s kingdom.”
Bishop Lowe was ordained as Bishop of Hamilton in February 2015. Born in Hokitika, he was ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Christchurch in his home town at Hokitika in 1996.
He served as the assistant priest in the Mairehau, Ashburton and Greymouth parishes before being appointed parish priest of Timaru North and Chaplain of Roncalli College in 2000. From 2005-2007 he completed a Licence in Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
He was appointed to Holy Cross Seminary in Auckland in 2008 where he served as Formation Director until the end of 2014. While based there, he served for a time as Parish Priest of Ponsonby.
Bishop Lowe is the Vice President and Secretary of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, and the bishops’ representative on Te Rūnanga o te Hāhi Katorika ō Aotearoa, the Church’s national Māori advisory group. He is also a member of several other bodies including the National Safeguarding and Professional Standards Committee.
Bishop Lowe’s appointment to Auckland means the dioceses of Hamilton, Palmerston North and Christchurch are without bishops pending Pope Francis announcing new appointments.
RCIA Leaders’ Gathering with Fr. John O’Connor – 12th/Feb (Tauranga).
Parish leaders and teams of RCIA, don’t miss out on this event! Be part of our free workshop and prayer with Fr John O’Connor (Food for Faith NZ) as keynote speaker. Understand the potential of the RCIA ministry and how to overcome the challenges that go with it. This is also open to planners or starters of the RCIA. Join the network of RCIA teams on 12-February, 2022, Saturday, for a one-day, one-off gathering at St Mary Immaculate Church, 114 Elizabeth st., Tauranga. Programme starts at 9:30 am.
Email your interest or enquiry to: robertg@cdh.org.nz . See you all!
CALLING ST JOHN’S OLD BOYS FROM 1962-65
St John’s College Hamilton is inviting our very first pupils to a special 60th celebration on 2 February 2022. Please help us connect with those Old Boys that started at our new College from 1962 – 1965. More information is on the College website to register your interest or please phone us at the office with your contact details.
www.stjohns-hamilton.school.nz or Phone 07 856 7091
Implementation of the Strategic Pastoral Plan –
The Pastoral Services Team can assist. Click here for more information.
Advent Companion 2021 – FREE Download
The Diocesan Pastoral Services Team have collated this special Advent Companion to help guide us through the season of Advent. Featuring reflections from some of our priests around the diocese, prayers of blessing, and a note from Pope Francis.
You can read it and download it for FREE here:
https://www.cdh.org.nz/kete-korero-blog/advent-companion-2021
I would like to expand the parish history on the site. Does anyone have old photos of the church especially inside, or names and photos of early priests and dates they were here? I believe one of the first parish priests is buried in the Ngaruawahia cemetery does anyone know where. One of our priests told me this some years ago but I can’t remember where he said the grave was. I think he said he was Dutch and played in a brass band. Please email anything to zlterenceol@gmail.com Thanks, Terry.
Everything Blessed is a Kiwi youth initiative launched to support Christian artists during this time of covid where they can promote and sell their artworks online. Our Team are all practising Catholics from New Zealand and we hope to have a few more Christian artists joining us soon.
Below is a poster summarising who we are and it would be such a blessing if it could be included in your weekly newsletters or printed out for the churches notice board.
Thank you and God bless
Rebekah
New Media statements from NZCBC
Catholic bishops issue guidelines for working with people who choose “assisted dying”
The NZ Catholic Bishops have written a pastoral statement and guidelines for health professionals, chaplains
and priests to help them work with people who decide to die under the End of Life Choice Act which takes effect on 7 November. Though the Church opposes the deliberate taking of human life, it cannot turn away those who choose “assisted dying” under the new law, says the Bishop of Hamilton, Stephen Lowe, the vice-president of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference.
The media statement and the two documents are online here: https://www.catholic.org.nz/news/media-releases/eolca-catholic-guidelines
A Festival on St. Joseph
Here’s an opportunity over four weeks to learn more about St Joseph as his year, declared by Pope Francis, draws to a close.
The Festival – 14 November to 11 December beginning and ending with Mass; a talk by Fr Don Calloway; a movie – Joseph of Nazareth; and sacred music and art. See poster for other details.
Recently, Bishop Michael posted on his facebook page, as he promoted a novena to finish the year of St Joseph.
“ When he initiated this year of St Joseph, Pope Francis said:
“Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.” (Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde)
Our Hope
Now more than ever we need St Joseph’s loving fatherly intercession! We want to join together as a diocese and, over 9 days of prayer, ask St Joseph to intercede for us and our young people: that they would perceive the Holy Spirit’s movement in their hearts, that the Lord will bring to light and help us to recognise those who He has called to the priesthood and religious life, and that they may be willing and enabled to play their part in the history of salvation.
The novena will be live-streamed from the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Joseph daily, culminating in the celebration of (live-streamed Mass) on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Wednesday 8 December. It would be wonderful if you could join us!”
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