Catholic

Events In History

23 November 1986

Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass in windy Wellington

The first and so far only visit to New Zealand by a Bishop of Rome was significant for both Catholics and the wider community. Read more...
17 May 1922

Catholic Bishop found not guilty of sedition

James Liston, the assistant bishop of Auckland, was found not guilty of sedition following a high-profile court case. Read more...
26 December 1879

Sectarian violence in Canterbury

In Christchurch, 30 Catholic Irishmen attacked an Orange (Protestant) procession with pick-handles, while in Timaru, 150 men from Thomas O’Driscoll’s Hibernian Hotel surrounded Orangemen and prevented their procession taking place. Read more...
9 April 1850

Sisters of Mercy arrive in New Zealand

Nine Sisters of Mercy arrived in Auckland on the Oceanie with Bishop Pompallier and a number of priests. Read more...
10 January 1838

Catholic missionaries arrive in Hokianga

French Bishop Jean Baptiste François Pompallier arrived in Hokianga. His party celebrated their first mass three days later. Read more...

While New Zealand had no official involvement in the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s, a small number of New Zealanders fought in Spain (six were killed there), or served as doctors and nurses. Many others supported the Republican war effort through fundraising efforts back home.
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Page 3 - Attitudes in New ZealandThe deaths of at least six New Zealanders in Spain went largely unnoticed at home. But some groups within New Zealand saw Spain as more than a ‘far away side issue’.

The Christian missionaries of the pre-1840s have been described as the 'agents of virtue in a world of vice', although they were not immune to moral blemish themselves.
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Page 6 – Printing the word of God
From the mid-1830s the printed word became a new weapon in the campaign to bring Christianity to Maori.

Weld, Frederick Aloysius
Frederick Weld was only briefly premier, but he later became a serial colonial governor. That he, a Roman Catholic, could lead a colony showed how different New Zealand was to Britain.
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Pompallier, Jean Baptiste Francois
A French bishop living amongst hostile British settlers in New Zealand, Pompallier was sympathetic to Māori concerns, and for his time had an enlightened view towards Māori.
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Aubert, Mary Joseph
Suzanne Aubert – later Mary Joseph Aubert – was a Catholic nun, nurse, teacher and pioneering social worker, who sometimes had to battle church and government authorities in order to help those in need.
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