List of New Zealand Catholics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of notable New Zealand Catholics. All additions should be sourced and ideally their faith or Catholic identity should be significant to their notability.
Activists
- Patricia Bartlett, former nun and social conservative. She founded the Society for Promotion of Community Standards.
- Marilyn Pryor,[1][2] served on the Executive Council of what is now called Voice for Life.
Artists and architects
- Francis Petre, architect of cathedrals[3][4]
Businesspeople
- Charles Todd[5] motor-industry pioneer and temperance activist; many in the Todd family were or are Catholics
Politicians
- Anand Satyanand, Governor-General from 2006 to 2011, first Roman Catholic and first ethnic Indian (of Indo-Fijian origins) viceregal officeholder, ombudsman, lawyer and judge
- Jim Bolger,[6][7] thirty-fifth Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Sir Charles Clifford, 1st Baronet (1813–1893), first Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives
- Peter Dignan,[8][9] fifteenth Mayor of Auckland City
- Bill English,[10][11] thirty-ninth Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Walter Lee, Auckland member of parliament
- Mark Mitchell, Minister of Police
- Michael Joseph Savage,[12][13] twenty-third Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Heremia Te Wake,[14] tribal leader and catechist
- Joseph Ward,[15][16] seventeenth Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Frederick Weld, sixth Prime Minister of New Zealand
Religious
Clergy
- Fr. Douglas Al-Bazi, refugee from Islamism
- Fr. Mark Beban,[17] also a cricketer.
- Fr. Felix Donnelly (1929-2019),[18][19] social activist, writer, academic and radio talkback host
- Rev. Fr. George Duggan,[20][21] philosopher and centenarian
- Fr. David Kennedy,[22] astronomer and educator
- Bernard O'Brien SJ, Seminary professor.
- Antony Sumich, F.S.S.P.,[23][24][25] New Zealander who was a former international Rugby Union and Cricket player for Croatia.
- Fr. Wiremu Te Awhitu,[26] first Māori to be ordained
Religious sisters and nuns
- Mary St Domitille Hickey,[27] historian, school principal, and reportedly the first New Zealand woman to be awarded a doctorate in literature
- Mary Gonzaga Leahy,[28] nun and hospital matron
- Sister Mary Leo,[29] music educator, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Sister Marie Roche,[30] honoured for her work in a prison
Writers and journalists
- K. O. Arvidson,[31][32] poet and academic
- James K. Baxter,[33] poet and convert who was offered a job composing catechetical material for the Catholic Education Board
- Eileen Duggan (1894-1972), Poet.
- Patrick Anthony Lawlor,[34] writer known for the autobiographical work Old Wellington days, also worked for the Catholic Writers' Movement of New Zealand