Pope virtually endorses Shroud
Jerome R. Corsi
TURIN, Italy – Marking the highlight of the current Exposition of the Shroud of Turin in Italy, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open-air Mass yesterday before some 25,000 people under overcast skies in the Piazza San Carlo, Turin's largest central city square.
After the Mass, the pope entered the Cathedral of John the Baptist to kneel and pray silently before the Shroud, accompanied only by a small delegation of church hierarchy and a select group of the committee assembled by the Archdiocese of Turin to oversea theexposition, the first since 2000.
After his private veneration before the Shroud, Pope Benedict virtually endorsed it as the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ, something the Catholic Church has hesitated to do.
Calling the Shroud "an icon" of a crucified man "written in blood," Benedict proclaimed it displays the wrapped body of a man with the exact wounds the writers of the New Testament Gospels say Jesus Christ suffered.
"In this 'man of sorrows,'" the pope continued, "we see the conquest of life over death, of love over hate, in that yes, we see the death of Jesus, but also we glimpse his resurrection."
Acknowledging that he had seen the Shroud of Turin once before in person, Pope Benedict declared that this time was particularly intense "possibly because the passage of years has rendered me yet more sensitive to the message of this extraordinary icon of the mystery of Holy Saturday," the day Christ lay in the tomb prior to his resurrection.
Still, the official position of the Catholic Church remains that while the Shroud of Turin is considered a sacred relic worthy of veneration, no declaration has been made of its authenticity.
In 1988, radiocarbon dating placed the origin of the Shroud in the years A.D. 1260 to 1390, suggesting it is a medieval forgery.
However, some scientists have argued that the sample cut from the Shroud by the Archdiocese of Turin for the radiocarbon dating was compromised by a medieval reweaving with cotton by nuns in 1534 to repair damage by a fire that nearly destroyed it.
After venerating the Shroud in private, the pope met with a group of young people assembled by the archdiocese.
See WND video of the Turin Mass:
"'Change' has become, in many cases, the catchword of the day," the pope said, echoing a theme from the Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
The pope cautioned against change for the sake of momentary amusement or passing whims.
He told the assembled youth not to confuse change with liberty, advising that human beings were created to make definitive and irreversible choices that matter beyond this life.
pleasure!"
More than 2 million people are expected to travel to Turin to visit the Shroud in the current exposition that began April 10 and ends May 23.
Last week, Cardinal Severino Poletto, the head of the Archdiocese of Turin, refused to extend the end of the exposition to accommodate concerns that the eruption of the volcano in Iceland had disrupted the plans of many thousands of pilgrims who wanted to see the Shroud in person.
The Shroud of Turin, traditionally shown to the public about three times each century, is next scheduled to be on public exposition in 2025.
WorldNetDaily Senior Staff Reporter Jerome R. Corsi viewed the Shroud of Turin in person during the 1998 exposition. Corsi is the author of "The Shroud Codex," a novel based on the Shroud of Turin, published in April by Simon and Schuster.
May 3, 2010