When I first heard the news on April 6 that the 93-year-old Swiss theologian and author Father Hans Küng had died, I had just finished the prayers for the fifth day of the Novena of Divine Mercy. His death during the novena necessarily frames our Christian reaction.
For the novena's fifth day, Jesus had asked St. Faustina Kowalska, and through her us, to bring to him "the souls of those who have separated themselves from my Church and immerse them in the ocean of my mercy."
The Polish sister of Our Lady of Mercy, in turn, begged Jesus to "receive into the abode of your most compassionate heart the souls of those who have separated themselves from your Church" and implored God the Father to "turn your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who have separated themselves from your Son's Church, who have squandered your blessing and misused your graces by obstinately persisting in their errors. Do not look upon their errors, but upon the love of your own Son and upon his bitter Passion, which he underwent for their sake."