News & Events

"Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another"
- Henry Nouwen

Silent lambs: Child sexual abuse and the Jehovah’s Witnesses

Best known for their door-to-door evangelising, Jehovah’s Witnesses are on a quest to save the ‘wicked’ from damnation. For victims of sexual abuse within the organisation, however, that quest has seen perpetrators shielded from justice. Amy Parsons-King has met several…

Court grapples with Newsroom’s banned story

Crown lawyers endure strong questioning from a panel of judges as Newsroom goes to court to overturn a ban on a video investigation into Oranga Tamariki.  Tim Murphy reports. Newsroom has gone to the Court of Appeal to try to reverse…

I was never safe or felt safe in or around the church

After surviving 10 years of hell, Anna* held on to hope her perpetrators would finally atone for the sins of the past.  Tim Scott investigates how the Presbyterian Church’s redress retraumatised Anna, convincing her it is washing its hands of accountability. Anna*…

The misery of Marylands

At Marylands School, sexual and physical abuse by Catholic brothers was brutal, prevalent and normalised. Survivors were so traumatised that, after they left, they found it difficult to understand the boundaries between right and wrong. At the frayed edge of…

Scale of abuse allegations in Dunedin Diocese revealed

Abuse allegations were levelled at nearly one in five Dunedin Catholic priests since 1950, the church has revealed. New research has been published by Te Ropu Tautoko, the group that co-ordinates Catholic Church engagement with the Royal Commission on Abuse…