Good Friday his advisers, decreed that Good Friday that year would be a holiday. This was Castro's response to a request made personally to him by Pope Benedict XVI during the latter's Apostolic Visitation to the island and León, Mexico that month. The move followed the pattern of small advances in Cuba's relations with the Vatican, mirroring Pope John Paul II's success in getting Fidel Castro to declare Christmas Day a holiday. Both Good Friday and Christmas are now annual holidays in Cuba. In Hong Kong, despite the transfer of sovereignty from the UK to China in 1997, Good Friday continues to
Good Friday prayer for the Jews the prayer book of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America replaced "all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics" with "all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son." The 1979 edition contains this prayer: Good Friday prayer for the Jews The Good Friday prayer for the Jews is an annual prayer in the Christian, particularly Roman Catholic, liturgy. It is one of several petitions known as the "Solemn Collects" or "Solemn Intercessions" that are made in the Good Friday service for various classes and stations of peoples: for the Church; for the