A spokesman for Samoa’s Catholic archbishop says new religions are threatening to erode the country’s faith. On Friday, Samoa’s head of state is due to ask for divine forgiveness of his country’s sins for the first time, in a ceremony organised by the Catholic church. Father Penitito Mauga says he expects up to 20 thousand Christians of all denominations to attend. He says as the beliefs of the population change, it’s time for the people to reaffirm their faith. “We have ...

What was intended as a goodwill tour by a visiting group for the Church of Scientology has run into a bit of controversy. The Scientology visit tent in front of the Government building, endorsed by the Government, has remained largely empty since opening last Wednesday. However, a training course was held for a group of police officers and other support servicemen. The visit hit a bad patch when claims were made that the tour received the blessings of the National Council ...

Posted at 17:47 on 07 October, 2007 UTC “A visit of scientology volunteers to Samoa has caused some upset.” The Scientology group are in Apia to train officers in disaster management. The government supports the goodwill visit, but Christians from various congregations have warned about the possible negative impact. A senior lecturer of religious studies at Otago University in New Zealand, Dr Gregory Dawes, says apart from being competition to Christian denominations, there are also other grounds for concern. “There is ...

Posted at 03:46 on 05 October, 2007 UTC Samoa’s acting police commissioner says he welcomes the goodwill visit by scientology volunteers who will train police officers in disaster management. Scientology volunteers have put up tents in front of the government building in Apia for their disaster management training over the next two weeks. The goodwill visit has sparked protests among Christians from various congregations who warn about the possible negative impact. The government has expressed its support for the training, and ...

Posted at 06:14 on 04 October, 2007 UTC Hundreds of Christian believers in Samoa from Pentecostal churches and ministries have marched in protest against the government’s support of the Scientology religion. They marched to the front of the government building in Apia where Scientology tents have been put up as the main venue for its disaster training and seminars over the next two weeks. The protesters have called on the government to reconsider its stance to allow the Scientology members into ...

Samoa’s Minister of Police, Tole’afoa Apulu Fa’afisi, says a goodwill visit by Scientology volunteer ministers is crucial for the country as their mission is to provide disaster seminars and training for everyone. The minister, who opened the Scientology training programme yesterday was responding to more than a hundred Christian protesters from various denominations who marched to show their disapproval of the Scientologists visit. Tole’afoa says the government’s support for the Scientology volunteers is for the important training they are providing which ...

Posted at 22:50 on 02 October, 2007 UTC The chairman of the Council of Churches in Samoa, the Reverend Oka Fau’olo, has dismissed reports saying the Curch Concil is supporting a goodwill visit by Scientology representatives currently in the country. The chairman says there is no need for Scientology ministers to come through the council in order to provide disaster training and seminars for the public because there are other suitable organizations such as the local medical association. Reverend Fau’olo’s comments ...

Several volunteer ministers of the US-based Scientology religion are in Samoa to provide disaster response specialist courses for government representatives and local church councils. The Samoa government and the National Council of churches are the two major organisations supporting the training courses, scheduled to start next week. Numerous Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta are members of the religion. The followers of Scientology are fighting problems such as disaster management, manmade, natural or personal disasters, communication problems, violence, ...

The Church of Scientology is stepping up its image and presence here, spending $10 million to buy a prominent Auckland building. The church, which is popular with Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, will move around 100 staff into the building perched above the Southern Motorway at Grafton and run courses from there. It will soon leave Panmure's industrial strip for the building now occupied by the Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, which has two other campus ...

HOLLYWOOD - A novel theory of what lay behind the sacking of Tom Cruise by his Hollywood studio has emerged: he got up the nose of the main man's wife. Reports are circulating that the star so angered Paula Fortunato, wife of Sumner Redstone, boss of the studio's parent company, that she told her husband she was "boycotting Cruise's product for ever". Some film-world blogs have suggested this statement - provoked apparently by Cruise's criticisms of Brooke Shields's use of prescribed ...

Lynley Hood finds deep flaws in the Lake Alice settlement. News that the police have found no evidence of criminal offending by psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks, former head of the child and adolescent unit at Lake Alice Hospital, has been greeted with dismay by the psychiatric patient advocacy group, Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). "We're not giving up now. We are still working with victims and are still going to be filing criminal complaints," the group's New Zealand executive director, ...

A New Zealand website spoofing Hollywood actor Tom Cruise and his religion of choice is facing legal action from the Church of Scientology. The church is not amused by scienTOMogy - which features spoof videos of the star - and says it is breaching copyright. When Cruise engaged in some sofa stomping, he coined a new phrase called jumping the couch - the defining moment when someone has gone of the deep end. From that moment Glen Stollery has been chronicling ...

A former Lake Alice patient is disgusted police have decided not to charge a psychiatrist accused of abusing young people there in the 1970s. Police say they have found no evidence of criminal offending after investigating more than 20 complaints from former patients of Selwyn Leeks, who headed the child and adolescent unit of the now-closed hospital near Wanganui. A man who was a patient at Lake Alice in the mid-1970s told The Dominion Post the police decision not to press ...

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has sharply criticised actor Tom Cruise for televised remarks in which he called psychiatry a "pseudo science" and disputed the value of anti-depressant drugs. "It is irresponsible for Mr Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need," APA President Dr Steven Sharfstein said in a statement. During interviews promoting his latest film, War of the Worlds, Cruise has discussed ...

Hollywood film star Tom Cruise has donated $1500 to an Auckland youth drug programme sponsored by the Church of Scientology. Cruise sent the cheque and a letter after hearing about the work of the Drug-Free Ambassadors group, which encourages young people to adopt a drug-free lifestyle. Mo McLeary, manager for the group, which has been running for three years, said it was thrilled with the donation. Mr McLeary had written to the actor hoping it might receive a photo for publicity ...

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise and other critics say the use of the child-calming drug Ritalin is dangerously out of hand. But desperate parents are hailing the medication. Mark Henderson reports. The true cost of fare play CAMERON POU was eight when he first tried to take his life. His horrified mum Linda found him just in time. A few weeks later, the angry youngster tried again. We met Cameron six years ago in a Sunday Star-Times article on behaviour disorders among ...

Lawyers acting for a Sydney plastics manufacturer have invoked its worldwide patents in an attempt to stop a proposed Hokitika plastics venture. A fraud investigation is being called for after claims by Armacel that the Hokitika initiative is planning to use technology it does not own. The claim has been referred to the Serious Fraud Office. Two of the key figures in the Hokitika project, Ian Pitts and Tim Redmond, both of Sydney, worked for Armacel managing director and the patent-registered ...

Key players in the controversial Hokitika plastics factory proposal are devotees of the Church of Scientology. Wayne Byrne, of Sydney, and Soren Kierkegaard, of Tauranga, are the two principals of FT Manufacturing (Westland) Ltd, which has received a $500,000 loan from the Westland District Council, along with a council commitment to build the factory for a further $2.2 million. Several others involved in the Hokitika project are believed to have links with the American-based church, which is centred on a controversial ...

Critic: Are you guys a cult? Mike Ferris, Public Relations Spokesperson, Church of Scientology of NZ: Depends on what you mean by a cult. Every religion in its forming stage was considered to be a cult, pretty much. Critic: You guys aren't in your forming stages though, you've been around for fifty years. You claim to be the only major religion that's emerged out of the twentieth century. So, are you a cult? Ferris: Not in the derogatory sense, no, we ...