"News and Editorial," Shroud of Turin News, April 2020

Shroud of Turin News - April 2020
© Stephen E. Jones[1]

[Previous: March 2020] [Next: May 2020]

This is the April 2020 issue of my Shroud of Turin News. I have listed below linked news article(s) about the Shroud in April as a service to readers, without necessarily endorsing any of them. My comments (if any) are bold in square brackets. Any emphases are mine unless otherwise indicated.

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News:
• "Archdiocese to livestream display Shroud of Turin on Holy Saturday," Catholic News Service, 5 April 2020 ... With people forced to stay home, even during Holy Week, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the archbishop of Turin has announced a special online exposition of the Shroud of Turin, which many believe is the burial cloth of Jesus. On Holy Saturday, April 11, as Christians contemplate Jesus lying in the tomb, Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia will lead a liturgy

[Above (enlarge): Archbishop of Turin Cesare Nosiglia at the Liturgical Shroud Festival on 4 May 2020 prays before the Shroud image to be live streamed on 11 May (YouTube)]

of prayer and contemplation before the shroud [sic] ... The prayer service will be live-streamed along with live images of the 14-foot-by-4-foot shroud, which has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death. The ... livestream could be viewed directly on the official website for the shroud — http://www.sindone.org ... Announcing the special display, Archbishop Nosiglia said April 4 that he had received "thousands and thousands" of messages "asking me if, in this time of grave difficulty we are going through, it would be possible to pray this Holy Week before the shroud" and ask God for "the grace to defeat evil as he did, trusting in the goodness and mercy of God." The archbishop told Vatican News that the online viewing of the shroud could be "much better" than seeing it in person because the cameras will allow viewers to see it up close and to remain at length with the image. The image of the crucified man on the shroud, he said, "will go to the heart and the sadness of many people who will follow us. It will be like staying with the Lord on the day we await his resurrection." ... I didn't watch this but I disagree that "the online viewing of the shroud could be `much better' than seeing it in person." I have yet to see the Shroud in person but I am planning to in 2025. I have seen so many photos of the Shroud, and read so many descriptions of it by those who have seen it, that I doubt I will be surprised. But I expect it will be an overwhelming experience to be so close to the very Cloth that covered the dead body of Jesus, that has His very blood on it and through which He was resurrected!

• "Pope offers blessing for Holy Saturday online showing of Shroud of Turin," Crux, 11 April 2020 ... "ROME - Calling the Shroud of Turin an "icon of the Lord Jesus crucified, died and risen," Pope Francis thanked the archbishop of Turin for deciding to offer a special online exposition of the shroud Holy Saturday, April 11, to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. "Jesus gives us the strength to face every trial with faith, hope and love in the certainty that the Father always hears his children who cry out to him and saves them," the pope said in a message dated April 9 and sent to Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of Turin. Nosiglia was to lead a liturgy of prayer and contemplation before the shroud ... The prayer service was to be livestreamed along with live images of the 14-foot-by-4-foot shroud, which has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death ... In his message to the archbishop, Pope Francis said he deeply appreciated the archbishop’s decision to have an extraordinary exposition of the shroud to "meet the requests of the faithful people of God, who are so harshly tried by the coronavirus pandemic." "I, too, join in your prayer," the pope said. "In the face of the Man of the Shroud we also see the faces of many sick brothers and sisters, especially those most alone and least cared for, but also all the victims of wars and violence, slavery and persecution." Offering his blessing to all who watch the exposition online or on television, Pope Francis said, "we live these days in intimate union with the passion of Christ so as to experience the grace and joy of the resurrection." Pope Francis' calling the Shroud an "icon of the Lord Jesus crucified, died and risen" is no accident. As I pointed out in my posts of 23Jun15 and 11Aug15:

"An `icon,' in Roman Catholic theology is merely a humanly created representation of the real thing:

"ICON ... from the Greek eikon meaning image, is a word now generally applied to paintings of sacred subjects or scenes from sacred histories" ("Icon," New Catholic Encyclopedia 2003. My emphasis)

as opposed to "relic" which is the real thing:

"RELICS The material remains of a saint or holy person after his death, as well as objects sanctified by contact with his body." ("Relics," New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2003)

And Pope Francis consistently has referred to the Shroud as merely an "icon" 26Nov13, 01Mar14, 23Jun15 & 11Aug15. That is because Francis is a religious liberal, i.e. he is man-centred rather than God-centred (Mt 16:23 & Mk 8:33).

Editorial
Posts: In April I blogged only 3 new posts (latest uppermost):
"Coins over the eyes #32: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!" - 18th; "`News and Editorial,' Shroud of Turin News, March 2020" - 15th & "Dimensions: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #11" - 8th.

Pageviews: At midnight on 30 April 2020, Google Analytics [Below (enlarge)] gave this blog's "Pageviews all time history" as 1,173,629:

This compares with 1,051,769 at the same time in April 2019. That is 121,860 pageviews over the year, or an average of ~334 pageviews per day.

Google Analytics also gave the most viewed posts for April 2020 (highest uppermost) as: "Problems of the Turin Shroud forgery theory: Index A-F," Jan 20, 2016 - 73; "Problems of the Turin Shroud forgery theory: Index G-M," Apr 2, 2016 - 45; "`If Jesus had type AB blood it would mean... he had two separate human parents!'," Sep 29, 2018- 22; "Holy Shroud to be exhibited April 19-June 24 2015," Mar 1, 2014, 21 & "The Shroud of Turin: 2.6. The other marks (5): Coins over eyes," May 10, 2013 - 20.

Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]

Posted: 22 May 2020. Updated: 22 June 2020.