The Catholic Church in New Zealand () is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope in Rome, assisted by the Roman Curia, and with the New Zealand bishops.
Catholicism was introduced to New Zealand in 1838 by missionaries from France, who converted Māori. As settlers from the British Isles arrived in New Zealand, many of them Irish Catholics, the Catholic Church became a settler church rather than a mission to Māori.
According to the 2023 census, "Catholicism" was the largest single Christian religious affiliation in New Zealand, with 449,484 adherents, while the second-largest was "Christian (not further defined)," which recorded 364,644.
In New Zealand there is one archdiocese (Wellington) and five suffragan dioceses (Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Palmerston North). The church is overseen by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference. Its primate is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Wellington, who has been Paul Martin since 2023.
History Beginnings
The first Christian service conducted in New Zealand waters may have occurred if Father Paul-Antoine Léonard de Villefeix, the Dominican chaplain of the French navigator, Jean-François de Surville, celebrated Mass in Doubtless Bay, near Whatuwhiwhi, on Christmas Day, 1769.So far, no record has been found to confirm that he did celebrate Mass on that day. 'Samuel Marsden's first service' (Ministry for Culture and Heritage). There is a record that he anointed (that is, gave the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick) to several French sailors suffering from scurvy and its effects.
Nearly 70 years later, in January 1838, another Frenchman, Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier (1807–1871) arrived in New Zealand as the Vicar Apostolic of Western Oceania. He made New Zealand the centre of his activities, which covered a vast area in the Pacific. He celebrated his first Mass in New Zealand at Totara Point, Hokianga, at the home of an Irish family, Thomas and Mary Poynton and their children, on 13 January 1838. Pompallier was accompanied by members of the Society of Mary (Marists), and more soon arrived. The mission headquarters were established in Kororāreka (later called Russell) where the Marists constructed a building (now called Pompallier) from pisé and set up a printing press. As well as stationing missionaries in the north, Pompallier began work in the Bay of Plenty, in the Waikato amongst Māori, and in Auckland and Wellington areas amongst European settlers.Allan Davidson, Christianity in Aotearoa: A History of Church and Society in New Zeéaland, Third edition, Education for Ministry, Wellington, 2004, p. 16. In 1840, New Zealand became a British colony with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. The number of Catholic colonists comprised fewer than 500, from a total number of around 5000.
The Catholic Church established New Zealand as a separate vicariate in 1842.
The mission splits As a result of disagreement between Pompallier and Jean-Claude Colin, Superior of the Marists in France, Rome agreed to divide New Zealand into two ecclesiastical administrations from 1850. Pompallier became Bishop of Auckland and the Marist Bishop Philippe Viard (1809–1872) took charge of Wellington, which included the southern half of the North Island and the whole of the South Island. This decision meant that much of the Māori mission in the North (where most Māori lived) was abandoned; the Marists working in what became the Auckland diocese, including those who spoke Māori, moved to Wellington. However, Pompallier, who was in Europe in 1850, returned to New Zealand with more priests, the first Sisters of Mercy and ten seminarians, whose training was quickly completed. All but one of them were ordained within five weeks, and their training was the origin of St Mary's Seminary founded in that year.Michael King, God's Farthest Outpost: A History of Catholics in New Zealand, Penguin Books, Auckland, 1997, p. 73.
Increasingly, the Catholic Church in New Zealand was preoccupied with meeting the needs of the settler community. Many of the Catholic settlers were from Ireland, with some from England and Scotland. In the 19th century some were from English recusant gentry families, including Sir Charles Clifford, 1st Baronet (first Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives), Frederick Weld (sixth Premier of New Zealand) and their cousin William Vavasour.
The Wellington diocese was divided into three dioceses, with Dunedin (1869) and later Christchurch (1887) being established in the South Island.Davidson, p. 17. In 1887, New Zealand became a separate ecclesiastical province. The hierarchy was established with Wellington becoming the archiepiscopal see. In 1900 Holy Cross College, Mosgiel, a national seminary for the training of priests, was opened. In 1907, when New Zealand was created a Dominion, there were 126,995 Catholics out of a total European settler population of 888,578.
Māori After 1850, the Māori mission continued in the Auckland diocese in an attenuated form and could not be revived until after the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s. The survival of the Māori church during the remaining decades of the 19th century was in large part due to Māori catechists – many of them trained at Pompallier's St Mary's Seminary.Good Shepherd College website, Our History (retrieved 6 December 2011) James McDonald was the only missionary to the Māori in the late 1870s. In 1880, Archbishop Steins, the Bishop of Auckland, gave McDonald charge of the Māori mission. In 1886, Bishop John Edmund Luck obtained Mill Hill Fathers for the mission. In spite of inadequate resources, the priests were very active. Some, like Father Carl Kreijmborg, were "builder-priests", themselves erecting churches. They also started credit unions, piggeries, dairy farms, and co-operative stores. Many of the priests were German or Dutch and they made lifelong commitments to their Māori communities. Some became more proficient in Māori than in English.
In the Wellington diocese the Marists continued their work, to a limited extent, amongst Māori, notably at Ōtaki. Mother Aubert (see below) contributed significantly in Hawke's Bay and later in Jerusalem. Catholic secondary schools for Māori were established: St Joseph's Māori Girls' College, Napier (1867) by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions; Hato Petera College, Northcote (1928) by the Mill Hill Fathers (later staffed by the Marist Brothers who had arrived in New Zealand in 1876); and, in 1948, Hato Paora College was opened by the Marist Fathers.Davidson, pp 134–135. The first Māori Catholic priest, Father Wiremu Te Awhitu was ordained in 1944, and the first Māori Catholic bishop, Bishop Max Mariu was ordained in 1988.
Religious orders Many Catholic religious orders came to New Zealand. The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Auckland in 1850 – the first order of religious sisters to come to New Zealand – and began work in health care and education. The Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions arrived in Napier in 1867. When Patrick Moran arrived as the first Catholic Bishop of Dunedin in February 1871, he was accompanied by ten Dominican nuns from the Sion Hill Convent, Dublin, and they proceeded to establish their schools within days of unpacking.Michael King, God's Farthest Outpost: A History of Catholics in New Zealand, Penguin Books, Auckland, 1997, p. 95. In 1876, the same bishop obtained the services of the Christian Brothers who opened their Dunedin school in that year. In 1880, the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth came from Bathurst to Whanganui where they opened 7 schools between 1880 and 1900.Diane Strevens, In Step with Time: A History of the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth, Wanganui, New Zealand, David Ling, Auckland, 2001, pp. 40 and 44. The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart arrived in New Zealand in 1883 and established their first community at Temuka, South Canterbury.Diane Strevens, MacKillop Women: The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart Aotearoa New Zealand 1883–2006, David Ling, Auckland, 2008, p. 8. During the next twenty years Mary MacKillop (St Mary of the Cross), the founder of that congregation, visited New Zealand four times to support her sisters.Diane Strevens, MacKillop Women, p. 67 Suzanne Aubert, who had come to New Zealand in 1860 at the invitation of Bishop Pompallier, and had worked in Auckland and Hawke's Bay, established her order the Sisters of Compassion in Jerusalem in 1892 and brought it to New Zealand in 1899.Michael King, God's Farthest Outpost, p. 107. In 1997 the New Zealand Bishops' Conference agreed to support the "Introduction of the Cause of Suzanne Aubert", to begin the process of consideration for her canonisation as a saint by the Church. In the 20th century many other orders became established in New Zealand, including the Carmelite nuns in Christchurch and Auckland and the Cistercians in Hawke's Bay.
Development
The prominence of churches in New Zealand's cities, towns and countryside attests to the historical importance of Catholicism in New Zealand.
St Patrick's Cathedral is the cathedral of the Catholic Bishop of Auckland. It is on the original site granted by the Crown to Bishop Pompallier in 1841; it was renovated and re-opened in September 2007. St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin, was constructed between 1878 and 1886. Sacred Heart Cathedral is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Wellington and was opened in 1901 (in place of the destroyed St Mary's Cathedral), although it was not until 1984 that it became officially the cathedral.Dan Kelly, On Golder's Hill: A History of Thorndon Parish, Sacred Heart Parish, Wellington, 2001, p. III. The highly esteemed Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch, was opened in 1905. The latter three buildings were designed by the prominent New Zealand Catholic architect Francis Petre. In 1947 another seminary, Holy Name Seminary, was opened in Christchurch. The cathedral of the Hamilton Diocese is the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary (built in 1975, rededicated in 1980 and renovated in 2008), and the cathedral of the Palmerston North Diocese is the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit (built in 1925, renovated and rededicated in 1980).
Church today
Changing social attitudes in the 1950s and 60s and the sweeping changes ushered in by the Second Vatican Council affected the Catholic Church in New Zealand – including in areas of liturgy and church architecture. From 1970 Mass in New Zealand was said in either English or Māori. The iconic Futuna Chapel was built as a Wellington retreat centre for the Marist order in 1961; the design by Māori architect John Scott fused Modernist and indigenous design principles and marked a deviation from traditional church architecture.
On 6 March 1980, the Auckland Diocese and the Wellington Archdiocese were split to create the dioceses of Hamilton and Palmerston North respectively. There have been four New Zealand cardinals, of which all four held the position, successively, of Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan of New Zealand: Peter McKeefry, Reginald Delargey, Thomas Stafford Williams and John Atcherley Dew.
Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit New Zealand, in November 1986. He was given an official state welcome, and presided at ceremonies attended by thousands. He called for respect between cultures in New Zealand: