Turin Shroud still fascinate
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from April 1998.
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Fire in Turin's cathedral last year threatened to destroy the linen, which was rescued by a fireman smashing the four layers of bulletproof glass protecting the four-metre (14-foot) long, one metre wide (3 feet, 7 inches) cloth in its silver reliquary.
Twenty years after the last public viewing, the Shroud of Turin's pulling power is still strong, drawing people from around the world to see it return on display and sparking a rash of books, cd-roms and TV documentaries exploring its fascination.
The shroud was to be unveiled during a televised ceremony nationwide Saturday afternoon from Turin's cathedral, where the city's archbishop and VIPs were to gather.
"The relic which lives," wrote Turin daily La Stampa Friday in trying to explain the shroud's popularity despite the conclusion by scientists in 1988 that carbon-dating, authorised by the pope, indicated the cloth dated to between 1260 and 1390.
Among the latest theories promoted by the new books, both in Italy and abroad, is one saying that microbes could have contaminated the cloth, compromising the accuracyofthedatingtests, which were performed by three laboratories on snips of cloth. In past displays, the awed and curious sometimes touched the shroud.
Other theorists point to pollens found on the cloth to indicate the linen might date from Christ's time.
Pope John Paul II, who was still bishop of Krakow, Poland, when he journeyed here to see the linen in 1978, will be among some 2 million people expected to see the shroud in the two months it will be on display in Turin's cathedral.
John Paul will have a special kneeler where he will linger in prayer on May 24, and the cathedral will be closed to the public that day. Everyone else will have only two minutes to pause before the shroud as they pass by on three raised walkways during viewing hours.
The shroud will be on display each day starting Sunday from 0730 to 2030 through June 14.
By late this week, some 800,000 faithful, most of them using a toll-free number in Italy, had reserved a chance to view the shroud.
In honour of the display, the shroud's custodian, Turin's archbishop, Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, announced that all Turin priests and priests visiting the city through June 14 will have the power to lift the automatic excommunication that Roman Catholic women incur when they have an abortion. Normally, a woman confessing that shehashad an abortion must await the lifting from a bishop, but the cardinal's authorisation will mean that a priest will no longer have to turn to a bishop for that step.
The shroud is scheduled to go back on display in 2000 to mark the Holy Year declared by John Paul.
