Apart from its schools, the Church's growth has not been spectacular, but one, nevertheless, of steady development. Fifty years after Pompallier's arrival, Roman Catholics numbered 79,000, approximately one-seventh of the total population. The proportion is about the same now, but over the years original works have become intensified and new ones begun. Prominent in the educational field, the Church has in its schools almost one-tenth of the total primary and post-primary pupils of the country.

Through its secondary schools, university hostels, and training schools, the Church has its place in the development of the islands and countries bordering the Pacific. Pupils from these territories on finishing secondary courses go on to the universities or teachers' training colleges. In Auckland, Loreto Hall (founded from Craiglockhart, Scotland) and the Marist Brothers' House of Studies are helping in the growth of schools in the Pacific. Similar work is being done at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Auckland, and Calvary Hospital, Christchurch, in the training of nurses. As members of missionary societies and religious orders, New Zealand Roman Catholics are engaged in the world's major mission fields.

The strained religious relations marking the first days of the Church's entry into the country have long passed, and in inter-denominational societies, social, civic, and national bodies, Roman Catholics are represented and take an active part.

The denominational papers are the Tablet and the Zealandia.