Cardinal John Atcherley Dew is a former Archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand, who was one of the first cardinals to controversially push for ending the prohibition on civilly remarried divorcees receiving Holy Communion.

Born on May 5, 1948, in Waipawa, New Zealand, Dew began his religious journey by studying philosophy at the Holy Name Seminary and theology at Holy Cross College, leading to his ordination as a priest on May 9, 1976.

Dew’s early ministry included serving as an assistant priest in St Joseph’s Parish, Upper Hutt, from 1976 to 1979. He then spent two years in the Cook Islands, working as a missionary in the Maori community in the Diocese of Rarotonga from 1980 to 1982. Upon returning to Wellington, he took responsibility for the Archdiocesan Youth Ministry and the Cook Islands Māori Community from 1983 to 1987.

In 1988 he was appointed director of formation at Holy Cross College in Mosgiel, during which time he reportedly expressed concern about the unsuitability of many students.¹Norris, Peter Joseph. Southernmost Seminary: The story of Holy Cross College, Mosgiel (1900–1997), Holy Cross Seminary, Auckland, 1999, pp. 104–11.

From 1991-1993 he studied spirituality at the Institute of St. Anselm in Kent, England.  Upon earning a diploma, he stayed in England and began serving as parish priest in Newtown.

In 1995, Dew was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Wellington Archdiocese. His ascent in the Church hierarchy continued when Pope John Paul II appointed him Coadjutor Archbishop of Wellington in 2004.

In 2005 he took over as the sixth Catholic Archbishop of Wellington and the Metropolitan of New Zealand, a position he held until 2023. That same year, he was also appointed bishop of New Zealand’s military ordinariate.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as a Synod father for the 2012 Synod on Evangelization, and he was appointed a Synod father and relator of one of the English language groups for the first Synod on the Family in 2014.

Pope Francis elevated Dew to the cardinalate on February 14, 2015, with the title of Cardinal-Priest of Sant’Ippolito. This appointment made him the fourth cardinal in the history of New Zealand.

Dew has held several significant positions within the Church, including President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference and President of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO).

One of the most notable events in Dew’s career was his intervention at the 2005 Synod on the Eucharist. He proposed that divorced and remarried Catholics and Christians married to Catholics should be allowed to receive the Eucharist, describing the existing ban as a “scandal.”²Cardinal Dew said: “Paragraph 5 of the Instrumentum Laboris calls attention to the scandal of starvation in a world of plenty. There also exists the question of those hungering for the food of the Eucharist. As bishops, we have a pastoral duty and an obligation before God to discuss and debate the difficulties burdening so many of our people. 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. There are those whose first marriages ended in sadness; they have never abandoned the Church, but are currently excluded from the Eucharist. There are Catholics married to people baptized in other Christian faiths. We acknowledge them to be baptised in Christ in the sacrament of marriage, but not in the reception of the Eucharist. This Synod must be pastoral in approach; we must look for ways to include those who are hungering for the Bread of Life. The scandal of those hungering for Eucharistic food needs to be addressed, just as the scandal of physical hunger needs to be addressed.” Pope Francis’ attempt to change the Church’s pastoral approach on the issue in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia drew significant opposition and controversy.

Cardinal Dew has shown a certain disregard for Church laws that seek to prevent the sin and scandal of sacrilegious reception of the Eucharist by those who lack the proper disposition because they have civilly remarried after divorce. He has argued for Church documents to be less “judging and condemning, passing out rules and laws” and favors instead adopting a new approach that shows “concern and compassion,” giving people “hope and support and encouragement,” and using “language that helps people and encourages people in their journey to God.”

A 2018 New Zealand survey showed a sharp decline in the number of Christian believers in the country, and the main reason given was reportedly the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and the doctrine on Hell. Rather than bolster the Church’s teaching in these areas, Dew said Church leaders had fallen short with regards to inclusion of particular groups in society, “such as the LGBT community, who have felt a very real sense of rejection through the Church, or perhaps in falling short in fully meeting the needs of our recent migrant communities.”

Similar to Pope Francis, he has urged the faithful to be “radical” in their thinking and to let go of the “established order” of doing things. He has been accused of being “autocratic and too progressive,” but he ignores such criticism, saying such critics “don’t fully grasp that the Church is here to be at the service of the world, not just to be looking inwards.”

Regarding church buildings, Dew is in favor of repurposing the buildings, not for worship, but turning them  into soup kitchens, or opened up to the homeless, refugees or the elderly. “I get anxious that we are not using what we have to its fullest potential,” he has said. “We need to ask how do we continue to involve people, and inspire people.”

Dew, who supports synodality, has said: “When Church teaching is explained in such a way that it says to people they’re intrinsically disordered or they’re living an evil life, people feel they can’t meet the mark rather than it being something helping, supportive and encouraging.”

In 2023, Dew faced allegations of historical sexual abuse dating back to the 1970s. He immediately stepped aside from all public Church activities while investigations were conducted. Both the New Zealand police and a Vatican-led review concluded that no further action was required, and Dew was cleared to resume his public Church activities. Throughout this process, Dew consistently denied the allegations, emphasizing his commitment to his episcopal motto, “Peace through integrity.”