John Atcherley Dew
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John Atcherley Dew (born 5 May 1948) is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, and the metropolitan of New Zealand.
Born in Waipawa he was educated at St. Joseph's Primary School, Waipukurau and St. Joseph's (now Chanel) College, Masterton. His tertiary education was at Holy Name Seminary, Christchurch (Philosophy) and at Holy Cross College (Theology).
He was ordained priest at Waipukurau by Cardinal Reginald Delargey in May 1976. He served as a priest in St Joseph's Parish, Upper Hutt 1976–1979; Diocese of Rarotonga, 1980–1982; Archdiocesan Youth Ministry 1983–1987; Cook Islands Maori Community 1983–1987 and then on the staff of Holy Cross College, Mosgiel 1988-1991. He studied Spirituality at the Institute of St. Anselm, Kent, United Kingdom between 1991-1992. He returned to New Zealand where he was the parish priest at St. Anne's Parish, Newtown 1993–1995.
He was ordained as Auxiliary Bishop for the Wellington Archdiocese on 31 May 1995. He is currently secretary of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference. He is Conference Deputy for: the National Committee for Professional Standards, Finance, Moderator of the Tribunal, Military Ordinariate and the National Council for Young Catholics.
He was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Wellington on 24 May 2004 and succeeded Cardinal Williams as Archbishop of Wellington 21 March 2005.
Dew achieved some prominence at the Bishops' Synod on the Eucharist at the Vatican in October 2005 when he advocated divorced and remarried Catholics being able to receive the Eucharist. He said that bishops have “a pastoral duty and an obligation before God to discuss and debate the question.” He urged the assembly to reconsider the Church ban, referring to it as a "source of scandal." "Our Church would be enriched if we were able to invite dedicated Catholics, currently excluded from the Eucharist, to return to the Lord’s Table.”
Catholic teaching holds that faithful who divorce and remarry under civil law are unfit to receive Communion unless they abstain from sex. Those who obtain an annulment and remarry can receive the sacrament. Archbishop Dew is generally regarded as a progressive prelate, although he is unyielding in his upholding of Catholic doctrine
