Jewish friends describe this as a parable.

Egypt represents imprisonment in something that is unhealthy, something that restricts the freedom of God's people.

God leads his people out of Egypt.

At first the enemy will pursue people. This is represented by Paraoh's soldiers.

But God intervenes in the story of the parting of the Red Sea.

The enemy is drowned.

There is a time trial in the desert until the people eventually come to wholeness - described as the promised land.

This is the celebration of Hanukkah.

Christianity also has a celebration that has its roots in Judaism.

It is something that all churches have in common, the Easter journey of Christ Jesus' death and Resurrection.

It is not only a historic event but also a deeply personal journey for every Christian.

As Catholics we experience it as a journey of the heart.

When I was a 14 year old in a small Presbyterian choir, I practised the words and music of the Bach Chorale "Oh Sacred Head sore wounded, with grief and pain laid down…"

It was a solemn and beautiful song, and I enjoyed singing it with a group of adults.

However, in the context of a Good Friday service, that song became unbearably sad. It filled me with grief. L started to cry, and I ran out of the church.

Tears gave way to embarrassment, and someone came out to rescue me; but that memory comes to the surface every Easter.

We all feel the experience of solemn grief in the Good Friday service, and we rejoice in the light in of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

This is ingrained in us.

If we make a movement from heart to head, we are reminded that sacrifice of animals was the Jewish way of atonement for sin. I guess that'd why we called Jesus "the Lamb of God."

We acknowledge the sacrifice for sin, but at the same time know that something else is happening.

Jesus not only dies for us, he is resurrected for us

Death and resurrection are like two sides of one coin.

How do we see this great gift?

In my understanding, Jesus demonstrated that what is resurrected is greater than what has died.

This Easter I am looking at all the little "Crucifixions" in my life. We all have that list. For a while we feel dead, but then resurrection comes and with resurrection a feeling of new growth.

I can see all the times I've got stuck in the tomb through anger, grief, self-pity. But there have always been good friends who have helped me out of self- imprisonment.

I find it interesting that both Hannukah and Easter are about redemption and spiritual growth.

While Jesus would have grown up with the Jewish story of the Exodus from Egypt, it is the story of his life and death and resurrection that is His gift to us.

And what a gift!

Easter is so big in meaning, it can't be measured

• Joy Cowley is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

The priest with four churches in the parish told CathNews that all the main services at prime times were full.

"I always knew people would come back", he said in an uplifted tone.

"I nearly had to erect a sign, 'No room at the Inn', but it's the wrong season for that," he said, grinning with delight.

A similar upbeat tone was reflected by parishes CathNews contacted throughout the country. In one, the 'crowd controller' at St Anne's Manurewa, Auckland, estimated the congregation numbered around 2,000, swamping available seating inside the church.

The feeling was catchy.

In Johnsonville, Jigs (16) assisted, as the priest sprinkled the bulging Easter Sunday congregation with water.

"The church couldn't cope with the number; people overflowed into the foyer, and we 'almost' ran out of holy water", Jigs told CathNews.

Gillian and Ewen said the Easter ceremonies lifted their spirits.

"People just kept on coming; there's life after all."

"People left their tombs; it was a resurrection experience happening before our eyes," Ewen said.

JL (18) breathed a sigh of relief as he described what he called ‘normality after two years.

"It was way more lively and great to see the community come out and celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ," he said.

"The community is bigger than our locked-down individual efforts."

Judy described the ceremonies as "Spring in Autumn."

Not one for TV Eucharist, she told CathNews that, for her, "Church is about being together, not watching others eat and drink."

"Eucharist is a community in action, not a spectator event," she said.

Judy says she likes to go to Mass and considers herself ‘a regular', but confessed she is not the most organised and, because of the booking system, she regularly missed out.

"Whoever thought that for two years, we'd have to book to go to Mass!"

She said that she probably prayed a bit more in the intervening times than she once did but did not consider that a bad thing.

"But personal prayer is not community worship. It's different."

"Young families.

"New life.

"Optimism," she said.

The palpable confidence of all these parishioners was catchy. It was real and while some, for example, missed kissing the cross on Good Friday and others regretted there was no singing, all wanted to focus on the positive. Their Easter joy was overlayed with being sensible.

"As well as the Resurrection, people also had an eye on the rear-view mirror; the tomb," Jane told CathNews.

"They showed their care and respect for each other by being masked and using hand sanitiser.

"It gave me more confidence to be there," she said.

Australia

Easter positivity also permeated Australia, where more than 8,000 people filed through the doors of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne.

Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli described the peoples' response as "humbling after COVID-19 density limits, and live streaming had dominated the event in recent years."

The Age reports that Cathedral staff went a step further than the norm and introduced hand sanitiser before receiving Holy Communion.

Not all over

However, despite the optimism, New Zealand's Dr Dion O'Neale of Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa warns ‘it' is not all over, and the next Covid-19 wave could hit New Zealand as early as winter or spring.

He cautions that the shape and timing of the next wave hinge on big uncertainties - such as how fast our natural immunity will wane, and whether our own behaviour will boost the spread.

Identifying the importance of continuing to use of masks, O'Neale says that future waves should have lower peaks, but qualifies the comment by saying the lower peaks depend on peoples' behaviour.

He says a fourth vaccine for high-risk groups would be a good way to mitigate the health burden with future waves.

O'Neale says "Overseas data on reinfections suggests that it is dominated by infections in unvaccinated individuals - particularly in younger children who may be too young to be vaccinated and who have lower vaccination coverage in general."

He is also not ruling out another 'game-changing' variant.

On April 13, New Zealand's Covid Response Minister announced that at 11:59 pm the country would move from red to the orange traffic light setting.

Additional sources

• Newstalk ZB
• The Age
• RNZ

The Romans' sins, the Jews' sins, our sins nailed our Lord Jesus to the cross. The cost of sin is death. Our sins killed the Son of God. Our sins crucified our loving Lord.

And our sins continue to cause him to suffer.

God is not the grand watchmaker, who created the world and now sits back and watches from afar as humanity suffers. No, by his incarnation, life, passion and death he has proven that he is with us - especially in our suffering.

And it is most important that we be with Christ in his suffering.

The late deeply insightful theologian Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar said, "It is the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it."

So, let us pray.

From the personal sins of pride, arrogance, selfishness, greed, indifference, envy, lust, anger, unkindness and violence, save us O Lord. Make us instead men and women whose lives reflect your humility, compassion, selflessness, generosity, justice, kindness, purity, gentleness and nonviolence - in short, your love.

From our indifference to the structures of sin so evident in our society and world, like the abortion industry which profits from the brutal dismembering and murder of unborn babies, save us O Lord.

From an insufficient government response to the suffering of our poor and hungry brothers and sisters in this country, and throughout the world, save us O Lord.

From the many corporations that reap huge profits from the use of sweatshop labour, that refuse to pay a living wage, that produce unsafe products, that pollute and dangerously warm our earth, save us O Lord.

From the military-industrial complex which produces the guns used in many murders committed on our city streets, which manufactures the light arms, tanks, helicopters, fighter jets, warships, bombs, missiles and drones that fuel the world's wars and kill far more innocent civilians than combatants, save us O Lord.

From the research facilities and factories that produce nuclear weapons of mass destruction, save us O Lord.

From a government that is more committed to astronomical military budgets and tax cuts for the wealthy than it is to adequately fund needed programs for the poor and the middle class to fixing the nation's infrastructure, to helping family farmers, to trading fairly with poor nations, to ending global poverty, to legalizing our hard-working undocumented population, and to committing full funding for clean, renewable energy sources, save us O Lord.

Let us also remember that the crucifixion was not only the ultimate sign of the evil of sin but was also the ultimate sign of the love God has for us.

On March 27, 2020, with the deadly coronavirus increasingly raging throughout the world, Pope Francis presided at an evening Lenten prayer service and extraordinary blessing "Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) - before an empty St. Peter's Square.

This strikingly, out of the ordinary, deeply prayerful event, highlighted in a mystical way a heavenly call to humanity to pay serious attention to what is most important in life.

Pope Francis declared that during this pandemic crisis we are being called to make a choice between "what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not."

He added, "It's a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others."

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

Many artists have depicted Christ's journey to Calvary.

These depictions portray Jesus' final hours and particularly come to the fore during Lent.

Called the Stations of the Cross, or the Way of the Cross, 'the Stations' are part of church life.

On the Friday's of Lent, but particularly on Good Friday, out of devotion, people visit each station to meditate on Christ's Passion and pray.

Sometimes too the Church gathers to pray the Stations together, however, most recently, as we respond to the health threat of being together, people have been unable to visit a church and 'make the Stations'.

CathNews NZ in conjunction with a group of nine people, all working in their bubbles, is pleased to bring the solemnity of the Stations to your place, offering you the opportunity to reflect, ponder and pray.

Click to view on YouTube

Francis approved the two new liturgical texts for use during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, wrote the decree accompanying the texts for the Mass.

Sarah said the Mass "In Time of Pandemic" prayers can be used for any Mass during the pandemic except the following:

• Ash Wednesday
• Lent
• Holy Week
• the Easter octave
• the Easter season
• All Souls' Day
• solemnities
• Sundays in Advent.

"In these days, during which the whole world has been gravely stricken by the Covid-19 virus, many requests have come to this dicastery to be able to celebrate a specific Mass to implore God to bring an end to this pandemic," Sarah wrote.

The Congregation has sent the texts to the world's bishops.

They have also been published on the Congregation's website.

The texts have been issued in Latin as well as several other languages, including English, Chinese, Spanish, French and German.

The decrees are effective immediately.

Source

• America
• Image: LifeSite

The service will take place on Good Friday, at Rome's Colosseum.

In a public letter, the pope said he chose the parish community so the meditations would reflect on the lives of those involved in the prison system.

These include "the victim, the prisoner, the prison officer, the volunteer, the family of those detained, probation officers, the church, and the innocent person who, at times, is unjustly accused."

"The prison is a kaleidoscope of situations, and there is always a big risk in telling a detail to the detriment of the whole" system, he said. "The resurrection of a person is never the work of an individual, but of a community walking together."

Francis has made it a habit each year to spread his requests for people to write the commentary and prayers for the Way of the Cross, so someone different writes them each time.

He says he chose to publish his choice for the meditations in Padua's local newspaper because he wanted the announcement "to be a caress to the suffering of these days."

Padua is located in northern Italy, the area being hit hardest due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has put the entire country under lockdown in an effort to prevent the virus spreading further.

"I write to you in order to write symbolically to everyone," the pope's letter to the paper said.

"The suffering and death that, as in other parts of Italy, you are experiencing because of the virus is for me a reason for prayer and human closeness."

"It is also the reason for Christian hope: Even in these moments God is speaking to us," he said.

Pope Francis, who has read the meditations from the Due Palazzi prison community, said he was "moved" by them.

They make him feel "like the brother of those who made mistakes and those who accept to stand beside them.

"I thank the parish of the prison and, together with them, I thank all those who work for this small world," Francis said.

"God bless the good heart of those who challenge indifference with tenderness."

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: Angelus News

In the Philippines, updated liturgical guidelines issued by the Catholic Bishops' Conference and posted on Twitter step up the precautionary measures the Conference announced in January.

With the addition of the latest decree - that during Veneration of the Cross participants "make a profound bow" before the Cross", recent changes to the liturgical guidelines have included advising priests to:

Distribute the Eucharist in communicants' hands rather than their mouths.

Place protective cloths over the screens of confessionals.

Change the holy water in church fonts regularly.

Ask the faithful not to hold hands during the "Our Father" and not to shake hands during the sign of peace.

The Conference also "strongly recommends":

Priests distribute ashes on Ash Wednesday (this week) by "dropping or sprinkling a small portion of blessed ash on the crown of the head of the faithful," rather than rubbing them on the person's forehead.

With around 75,000 confirmed cases across the globe, 27 countries are now affected by the virus.

The majority of cases remain in China. South Korea has 104 infected people and has reported its first death.

Three quarters of the more than 2,000 deaths attributed to the virus have been in a single region of China, Hubei province.

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: Mindanews

Mr Jennings, 71, died on Good Friday after a battle with cancer.

Last year he directed "They Crucified Him", a Passion play which portrayed Jesus' last days on Earth.

It featured a largely Pacific Island cast.

Continue reading

"[Good Friday] is a public holiday but not a mercantile holiday which means Christians working in the private sector do not enjoy the right to fulfill our religious obligations," said Kumarasiri Fernando, a Catholic teacher from Archdiocese.

Sri Lanka has three forms of public holidays, one observed only for banks, the other for banks and government and mercantile holidays are observed for banks, government and private companies. Good Friday currently is a holiday only for banks and the government.

"We hope President Maithripala Sirisena sees the need to declare Good Friday as a mercantile holiday," Fernando added.

Continue reading

The prayer reads: "Let us also pray for the Jews: that our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all men."

The prayer was revised by Benedict XVI in 2008 after he permitted wider celebration of the Mass in the older form with his apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum.

Previously the prayer had included references to the "blindness" of Jewish people and their "immersion in darkness".

But the prayer remains different from the Novus Ordo version introduced after the Second Vatican Council.

This reads: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant."

Archbishop Kevin McDonald, chairman of the England and Wales bishops' Committee for Catholic-Jewish Relations, said the difference had caused "great confusion and upset in the Jewish community".

He said: "The 1970 prayer which is now used throughout the Church is basically a prayer that the Jewish people would continue to grow in the love of God's name and in faithfulness of his Covenant, a Covenant which - as St John Paul II made clear in 1980 - has not been revoked."

"By contrast the prayer produced in 2008 for use in the extraordinary form of the liturgy reverted to being a prayer for the conversion of Jews to Christianity."

He said the English and Welsh bishops had "added their voice" to that of the German bishops, who had already asked for the prayer to be amended.

Archbishop McDonald said: "Such a change would be important both for giving clarity and consistency to Catholic teaching and for helping to progress Catholic-Jewish dialogue."

Joseph Shaw, president of the Latin Mass Society, said the request for a change is surprising as the extraordinary form version reflects the theology and imagery of 2 Corinthians 3:13-16.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Summorum Pontificum
• Image: St Patrick Parish

Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff of Aachen said he could not "understand or implement" the revised version.

Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificam allowed for wider use of the 1962 missal.

A revised Good Friday prayer in the old rite was introduced for Holy Week in 2008.

The revised version of the prayer for Jews asks God to "illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all men".

Prior to Vatican II, the prayer had referred to the Jewish people as "faithless" and "blind" and called for them to "acknowledge Jesus Christ".

Minor corrections had been made until the 1970 version of the prayer which read: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the Word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant."

The 1970 prayer also asks God that the Jewish people arrive at the "fullness of redemption".

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, asked this month that the Church revoke the Good Friday prayer for the old rite.

His request came at a function organised by the German bishops' conference to mark Vatican II's Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions - Nostra Aetate.

Bishop Mussinghof said the revised form for the Extraordinary Rite should be revoked as it is a burden on Christian-Jewish relations.

"I never understood why Pope Benedict reintroduced it in the first place."

The secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, Fr Norbert Hofmann SDB, advised Mr Schuster to address his request directly to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Writing in a Tablet opinion piece, the secretary of the Committee for Catholic Jewish Relations of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Sr Margaret Shepherd, said the Jewish people have remained in a covenantal relationship with God through which they access salvation.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Tablet
• Taylor Marshall
• Image: FSSP

One inquirer even suggested that the Crucifix hanging above the Altar is too intense a reminder of the sorrow in the world and that she would never join a church that displayed a sign of such cruel violence.

Today, we begin Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion and we are again reminded of this paradox.

Mass begins differently today. The gospel account of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem by Jesus is proclaimed from the doors of the Church.

After the other readings, the Passion Narrative from Mark's gospel is proclaimed. From cheering crowds to insane hatred and attack, what are we to make of this?

Vale of Tears
Catholics are taught that we are pilgrims in this "vale of tears."

The Salve Regina includes the words, "To thee [Mary] do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears."

Again, the inquirer might ask, "Why would I want to join up with a bunch that is so pessimistic about life?"

To be sure, this life on earth is filled with hardships, pain and suffering. Who among us has not suffered?

Looking back over my life, I can recall numerous occasions of pain. My earliest memories of pain involved occasions of embarrassment as a very young child; the events do not count for much now, but at the time, mortification would not have been too strong a word to describe my feelings.

There followed all of the normal moments of discomfort that can be expected to be experienced by a child and young teenager growing up in an affluent country.

Real suffering and loss had not yet arrived; no hunger, serious illness or homelessness… but I would come to be greatly affected by death. Continue reading

• Deacon Michael Bickerstaff in The Integrated Catholic Life

Deacon Michael Bickerstaff is the Editor in chief and co-founder of the The Integrated Catholic Life.

Fr Raniero Cantalamessa was preaching at a Good Friday service presided over by Pope Francis at St Peter's Basilica.

In such an alternative universe, faith, hope and love do not come from God but from money, the Capuchin priest warned.

Instead of believing "Everything is possible to one who has faith", as Jesus said, people believe "Everything is possible to the one who has money".

The narrative of a person doing evil for "30 pieces of silver" keeps repeating itself throughout history, Fr Cantalamessa said.

He said money is involved in all of today's social ills, including the illicit drug trade, women pushed into prostitution, children snatched for their organs, the mafia, political corruption, the sale of weapons and the ongoing financial crisis.

"Isn't it just as scandalous that some people collect salaries and pensions that are 100 times greater than those of the people who work under them?" he asked.

People should ask themselves whether they have bit of Judas inside them, since "you can also betray Jesus for other kinds of rewards", Fr Cantalamessa said.

"Whoever betrays his wife or her husband betrays Jesus," he said, and the same goes for government leaders who betray the public or anyone who betrays his or her conscience.

Such betrayals are worse because they happened after Christ's death and Resurrection; Judas didn't know Jesus was really the Son of God, while "we do".

"Jesus never abandoned Judas", but Judas abandoned all hope when he hanged himself in remorse for contributing to the death of an innocent man.

"Judas's greatest sin wasn't having betrayed Jesus, but having doubted his mercy," the preacher said.

Everyone is capable of betraying Jesus as Judas did, but no-one should make the mistake of doubting God's mercy and willingness to forgive, the preacher said.

Social justice themes also predominated at the traditional Way of the Cross meditations in Rome, attended by Pope Francis.

Connections were drawn between Christ's suffering and those of the homeless, jobless, migrants, and women.

Sources

• The Tablet (Good Friday service)
• The Tablet (Way of the Cross)
• Image: Christiano Cattolico

The gesture came days after President Raul Castro welcomed the appointment of Pope Francis as the first-ever Latin American pontiff.

Last year the Cuban government observed a holiday on Good Friday as an "exceptional" gesture following a request by Pope Benedict XVI, who had just visited the island in March.

Continue reading

The trouble with the crucifix is we no longer see it, but rather filter the image through our eyes of faith. Some people wear it as an accessory like gold earrings or a necklace; others use it as a talisman to ward off evil, if not vampires. A few brave souls even have it tattooed on various parts of their anatomy. The truth is, if we actually took the time to see the crucifix, we, like the Chinese, would be shocked, if not thoroughly scandalized.

While the Romans did not invent this particularly brutal form of capital punishment, they certainly perfected it. They were not interested in simply killing criminals; they intended to demean and dehumanize them. The slow, tortuous death was a bonus. The public spectacle served not only as a punishment for miscreants but also as a warning to anyone who harbored similar rebellious thoughts.

When I ask Bible study groups why Jesus was crucified, I get the formulaic "He died for our sins" or sometimes "He died to show God's love for us," which are true enough, but not complete. Certainly the powers-that-be who conspired to silence the pesky rabbi from Nazareth didn't have the salvation of the human race in mind. Rephrasing the question: "What did Jesus do to deserve crucifixion?" proves more thought-provoking. Clearly Jesus and his message posed a threat to the status quo, both religious and political. His cleansing of the Temple was the last straw. But the physical expulsion of merchants and moneychangers from the Court of the Gentiles was simply the final, dramatic manifestation of Jesus' scandalous message throughout his ministry: God loves everybody, unconditionally. Continue reading

Sources

• Joseph R Veneroso in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Vimeo

Maryknoll Fr. Joseph R. Veneroso is a former editor and publisher of Maryknoll magazine and Revista Maryknoll.

The Atlantic has posted a picture gallery of 38 images depicting the different ways Easter has been observed.

"Families attended church services, hooded penitents took part in processions, and children hunted for Easter eggs. In Catholic passion plays, participants depicted Jesus' trial and death. Other local rituals drew heavily on earlier pre-Christian traditions."

View picture gallery at Atlantic

Image: MSNBC.com

"There are few places on earth where religious fervor is matched in such graphic shows of penitence and resolve to do better", Asian Pearl Vision, a small luxury travel designer in the Philippines writes on its website.

In an article "Crucifixion in the Philippines: Tourists Welcome", the travel agency gives a link to various Good Friday events.

A Dutch woman, a travel show host from Holland, lamented to Reuters she did not get the full experience.

"We tried to carry a huge cross, we couldn't because everybody was filming us, and we tried to suffer like these people suffer, but it's very hard. We were the centre of attention instead of them."

Despite repeated requests from the Catholic bishops, for some Philippines Catholics' devotion calls them to this extreme expression of their faith.

"This is a vow I had made to God so that He will spare my family from sickness," the penitent, a faith healer, Arturo Bating, told ABC News after his ordeal.

Another, Alex Laranang, 57, also told ABC News had had himself crucified every year for the past 12 years.

"I had made a vow to do this every year until I die," Mr Laranang, who sells snacks aboard buses for a living, said.

"I do not expect anything in return. I do this for my God."

Like Mr Bating, he said the physical pain was a minor inconvenience.

"I hardly feel any pain. The nerves have been deadened," he said.

"After this, I go home, eat and go to sleep. After two days I go back to work."

In some cases the devotees - who do not take painkillers - also had their feet nailed to the cross and one person had to be rushed off in a waiting ambulance after his feet suffered from heavy bleeding.

Crucifixions are the grisliest, but by no means the only extreme acts of penitence on show in the Philippines.

Dozens of barefoot male devotees wearing black hoods whipped their own bare backs bloody with strips of bamboo tied to a string as they walk the neighbourhoods on Thursday and Friday.

They were followed by groups of children who covered their faces as blood from the whips sprayed on to their clothes.

The ceremonies are supervised by local governments, which put medical treatment on standby, said Reynaldo Sulit, a district official in Paombong.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has urged penitents against crucifying themselves, reports ucanews.com.

President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu, said the Church would rather have people renewing their faith than inflicting pain on themselves.

"While we are trying to discourage these practices we cannot also judge their intention, especially those who have made it as their vow," the prelate said.

"We do not judge and condemn [the practice] but we discourage it," he added.

Sources

• ucanews.com
• Reuters
• ABC News
• Asiana Pearl Vision
• Image: Reuters

Authorities also allowed Cardinal Jamie Ortega to transmit the Good Friday service on State Television.

It is the first time in 50 years Cubans were granted a public holiday on Good Friday, and this one-time exemption is a direct response to the request of Pope Benedict and his "transcendental visit" to Cuba.

"I'm not Catholic, but I respect them," said Gladys Ocampo, among Cuban workers who got the day off. "I'm happy to have a holiday I wasn't counting on."

Those placing more emphasis on the Good Friday service were members of the 'Ladies in White', the country's most prominent dissident group, who are seeking the release of political prisoners.

"We are here to ask God to enlighten us, to protect us... we will continue this peaceful struggle we have begun for the freedom of our loved ones but also for a new Cuba," the group's leader, Berta Soler, told reporters.

The Cuban government ended religious holidays in the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro into power, however in 1998, and at the request of the visiting then pope, John Paul II, Fidel Castro reinstated Christmas as a public holiday.

Sources

• Reuters
• Associated Press
• The West Australian
• Image: France 24

This was more 2 than the number of shops prosecuted for opening at Easter last year and three more than 2010.

Under the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990, there are just three and a half days a year on which shops are required to close: Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and on Anzac Day until 1pm, unless they have exemptions.

Blogger Chris Ford says " No one in their right mind (even retailers) are suggesting that we open up Anzac Day morning and Christmas Day to retailing. There is a consensus amongst Kiwis that these are important days for spiritual, social, commemorative or family reasons. But there have been attempts, mainly led by some retailers, to launch an onslaught on Easter trading laws in New Zealand in recent years."

"Although I admit that church attendance and spiritual observance has declined for the majority of New Zealanders, this weekend is still held to be significant by the substantial minority of Kiwis who are practising Christians," he says

"Also, even for those who are non-spiritual (such as myself) the four days of Easter provide the last chance to engage in either indoor or outdoor recreational, social or leisure pursuits before the onset of colder weather. Besides, Easter provides some respite from the endless commercialism of modern capitalism with its endless call to buy, buy, buy. To this extent, we even get two days where television and radio advertising is legally banned (today and Good Friday)."

Source

• The Press
• Voxy
• Image: Centro Mout Gambier

Minutes before Benedict departed from Cuba on March 28, President Raul Castro told the Pope of his desire to declare Friday, April 6 a holiday "as an exception, and in consideration to His Holiness and the happy results of this transcendental visit to our country."

Authorities will decide in the future whether the holiday will become permanent.

Spokesman for the Vatian, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ welcomed the decision, saying he hoped it would lead to greater participation in Easter celebrations.

"The fact that the Cuban authorities quickly welcomed the Holy Father's request to President Raul Castro, declaring next Good Friday a non-work day, is certainly a very positive sign," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

"The Holy See hopes that this will encourage participation in the religious celebrations and joyous Easter festivities, and that following the visit of the Holy Father will continue to bring the desired fruits for the good of the church and all Cubans."

Cubans said they were thrilled, if slightly incredulous, to hear of the day off.

"I'm happy I don't have to work, but really I don't understand any of this," said Roberto Blanco, 38. "First they tell us we have to work harder to get out of the economic crisis, and now they give us a day off. The pope comes and we don't work? I don't get it."

Mirta Salgado, a 51-year-old office worker, acknowledged not being at all religious, but said it was better not to over analyze these things.

"The things that happen in my country are incredible. After 50 years of telling us the church is bad, now they say it is good, and we get Good Friday off to boot," she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I'm not religious, not Catholic, not anything ... But whatever, at least this Friday I won't be working!"

Sources

• CNS
• Associated Press
• Image: International Business Times