Highlights April 2 edition of The New Freeman

This year in honour of the 90th anniversary of the Divine Mercy apparitions to St. Faustina Kowalska in Poland, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Immaculate Conception Parish) in Saint John will host a Holy Hour of Mercy on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 11, led by Bishop Christian Riesbeck, CC of the Diocese of Saint John. Thinking about a horrible death doesn’t come naturally to 21st-century humans, even on Good Friday. King’s University College philosophy professor John Heng in London, ON has meditated on the seven last words of Christ — a Good Friday spiritual practice that stretches back centuries and has inspired string quartets by Joseph Hayden, a choral masterpiece by Cesar Franck, books by Fulton Sheen, Jesuit writer Father James Martin and Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. A Christian life should be filled with amazement -- astonishment at the son of God suffering and dying for humanity and awe at realizing how precious and loved people are in his eyes, Pope Francis said. Jews and Christians can learn from each other's shared Scriptures, according to two renowned academics. Such dialogue, they said, can help to move a divisive society "from polemic to possibility."