Mission & Justice

On Behalf Of Graeme Ferguson; 7/5/08; Kevin Toomey OP

Peter Murnane OP became parish priest of St Benedicts shortly after I went to St David’s. I came to appreciate him as one of the most Christ-like priests I have met. Peter has the capacity to act in highly creative ways to ensure that the Gospel is demonstrated in life.

He planted - with others - a city garden on waste land on the edge of the Auckland motorway. With the Dominican nuns in St Benedicts, he had created an entire wall of the church property painted by graffitti artists who were being hounded by the city authorities. (more…)

David Eames; 2/5/08

Religious radicals who attacked the top-secret Waihopai spy base more likely hampered New Zealand’s ability to drive a hard bargain at the trade table than crippled the US ability to wage war, says one intelligence expert. Peter Cozens, head of Victoria University’s Centre for Strategic Studies, says the mysterious Marlborough base is used strictly to collect and analyse information - often of “a political, trade and diplomatic nature” - for the New Zealand Government. Members of the Anzac Ploughshares movement infiltrated the base in an early-morning raid on Wednesday.

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2/5/08

Charges of sabotage will not be laid against three protesters accused of damaging a protective dome over a satellite dish at the Waihopai spy base, police confirmed today. Dominican friar Peter Murnane, 67, along with farmer Samuel Land, 24, and organic gardener Adrian Leason, 42, were arrested after allegedly breaking into the Marlborough base early on Wednesday morning. The group, calling themselves the Anzac Ploughshares, said they had broken into the spy base to protest against the war on terror. They were charged with intentional damage and entering a building with the intent to commit a crime.

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Jarrod Booker; 1/5/08

A Catholic priest who took in and kept tabs on freed Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui is one of three people charged with inflicting an embarrassing blow to a top-secret spy base. Dominican friar Peter Murnane joined organic gardener Adrian Leason and Hokianga farmer Sam Land in yesterday’s early-morning raid on the Waihopai satellite communications interception station, near Blenheim. They used sickles to puncture one of two 30m rubber balloons that protect radar aerials from the weather. Prime Minister Helen Clark called the raid “a senseless act of vandalism”, and the head of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) ordered an urgent investigation into the base’s security.

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They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation; and there shall be no more training for war. Isaiah 2/4 This morning, 30 April 2008, we entered the Waihopai Spy Base near Blenheim. Our group, including a Dominican Priest, temporarily closed the base by padlocking the gates and proceeded to deflate one of the large domes covering two satellite dishes. At 6am we cut through three security fences surrounding the domes - these are armed with razor wire, infrared motion sensors and a high voltage electrified fence. Once inside we used sickles to cut one of the two 30-metre white domes, built a shrine and knelt in prayer to remember the people killed by United States military activity.

See: http://ploughshares.org.nz/