Collegamento pro Sindone

NEWS 2000

On Monday November 6, 2000 the Shroud Custodian, Mgr. Severino Poletto, visited the Alenia factory in Turin to see the new case (called TESI) which, put under the Royal tribune, will contain the Shroud in the future years, waiting for a new Exhibition. The Shroud was placed in the new case on December 22, 2000. The case has been made from a single aluminium block, suitably carved to avoid weldings. It has got a high hermetic seal and the internal overpressure avoids the contamination from outside. The check of the internal pressure and temperature is continuous and it will be possible to observe the Shroud periodically; the Shroud will be kept lying on a trolley, and they will be able to take it out quickly in case of emergency. The crystal lid, 29 mm thick and bullet-proof, has been made so that its weight (410 kg) is the same as the force exerted by the internal pressure, so it is as if the crystal “floated” and it doesn’t undergo any deformation in time.

Location of the Shroud after the 2000 Exhibition

Location of the Shroud inside the Cathedral after the 2000 Exhibition (A. Guerreschi)

At 4:00 p.m. on Sunday October 22, 2000 in the Cathedral the Shroud Custodian, Mgr. Severino Poletto, presided the solemn Eucharist concelebration at the conclusion of the Exhibition, together with 12 bishops and 84 priests and religious. As a consequence of the inconveniences caused by the bad weather of the previous days, there were offered two more opportunities to see the Shroud: on Thursday, October 26 and Friday, October 27 only for schools and on Saturday, October 28 and Sunday, October 29 for pilgrims. According to the official data during the Exhibition about one million pilgrims overall passed in front of the Shroud; we have to add about 250,000 more people, who saw the Shroud from the Cathedral central aisle.

On the occasion of the Great Jubilee and during the Shroud Exhibition, it was held in Orvieto (Italy) the Worldwide Congress "SINDONE 2000" in the following days: August 27-28-29, 2000. Orvieto was choosen for its historical and cultural tradition, for the presence of the Corporal of Bolsena's Miracle, for its experience in meetings organisation and its vicinity to Rome along the ways that the pilgrims covered during the Holy Years. At the end of the Congress, the scientists, coordinated by Prof. Giulio Fanti, formulated a new research project named "ATLAS Project", which was sent after to the Custodian of the Shroud as requested. For further information you can check out the Worldwide Congress "Sindone 2000" Website at http://web.tiscalinet.it/sindone2000/ or the special page on the Shroud of Turin Website at http://www.shroud.com/orvieto.htm.

On Sunday August 13, 2000 at 10 a.m. H.E. Mgr. Severino Poletto presieded in the Turin Cathedral the Holy Mass, concelebrated by the Bishops of Piedmont and numerous priests. During the liturgy they read numerous messages sent by the Holy Father, John Paul II, and the Emeritus Archbishop of Turin, H.E. Card. Giovanni Saldarini.

On Saturday August 12, 2000 the Exhibition of the Shroud began in Turin. At 9 a.m. the first group, composed by journalists, started the way leading inside the Cathedral, guided by Mgr. Giuseppe Ghiberti, President of the Diocesan Commission for the Shroud Exhibition.

Prof. Nello Balossino, Vice-Director of the Centro Internazionale di Sindonologia of Turin, explains his work on the Shroud, realized in relief for the blind people.

At 11 a.m. at the seminary in XX Settembre street it was held the press conference for the opening of the Exhibition. There were H.E. Mgr. Severino Poletto - Archbishop of Turin and Pontifical Custodian of the Shroud, Mgr. Giuseppe Ghiberti - President of the Diocesan Commission for the Exhibition of the Shroud and Dr. Marco Bonatti - Director of the Press Office of the Committee for the Exhibition of the Shroud. In the afternoon H.E. Mgr. Severino Poletto guided inside the Cathedral the first group of young people, who came in Turin to venerate the Shroud, and read them a prayer he wrote for the occasion.

Alan D. Adler, the renowned biochemist expert in blood chemistry who investigated the Shroud of Turin, died Saturday, June 10, 2000. He was 68. Adler established the Shroud blood came from violently inflicted wounds. "We know for sure it's human blood and it came from a man who died a traumatic death," he said in a 1998 interview. He said blood flowing from wounds has a different chemistry than blood flowing in veins. Member of the Conservation Commission for the Shroud of Turin, Adler wanted to ensure the ancient cloth didn't continue to deteriorate. He suggested encasing the Shroud in argon gas to stop the decaying process. Adler was an assistant professor of molecular biology at the University of Pennsylvania until 1967, when he took the job of senior staff scientist with the New England Institute in Ridgefield. In 1974, he joined the Western Connecticut State University in Danbury and later founded the biochemistry department there. He taught there for 20 years.

On Monday, May 22, 2000 at 11:30 a.m. in John Paul II hall of the Press Room of the Holy See it was held the press conference to show the Shroud Exhibition in the Jubilee Year 2000. There were H.E. Mgr. Severino Poletto, Archbishop of Turin and Shroud Custodian; Mgr. Giuseppe Ghiberti, President of the Diocesan Commission for the Shroud Exhibition; Prof. Ugo Perone, President of the Committee for the Shroud Exhibition and for the Jubilee Year 2000 and Councilor responsible for the Cultural Resources of Turin; Dr. Walter Giuliano, Vice-President of the Committee for the Shroud Exhibition and for the Jubilee Year 2000 and Councilor responsible for the Cultural Resources of the Province of Turin; Councilor Giampiero Leo, Vice-President of the Committee for the Shroud Exhibition and the Jubilee Year 2000 and Councilor responsible for the Culture of the Piedmont Region.

The meaning of the Exhibition is only religious: the sheet that brings in an impressive way the signs of the Passion becomes instrument of evangelization, inducement to prayer and conversion, appeal for an engagement of solidarity, to help Christ present in our poor and suffering brothers. I thought of giving a guideline to the pastoral operation of the Exhibition of this year, choosing as motto a word from Psalm 27:

Your face, Lord, I will seek

Like the man of the Ancient Testament also today’s one feels surrounded by hostile realities, lives in dread and is looking for certainties. He feels that he’s able to find them only in God; but who can see God? However the desire to see His face is so great.

Vatican Press Release, May 22, 2000

From May 6 to 7, 2000 it was held by the Sanctuary of the Shroud in San Felice Circeo (Italy) an International Symposium entitled "The Shroud, from photography to tridimensionality"

From March 2 to 6, 2000 an International Symposium and a recognition of the Shroud have been held in Turin. For information see the Internet page http://www.sindone.org/it/ostens/symposium.htm.

The Exhibition of the Shroud took place again in the Cathedral of Turin, as it was done in 1998, from August 12 to October 22, 2000, and not from August 26, as it was originally programmed. As it was explained during a press conference held in Turin on February 22, 2000, at the ex Metropolitan Seminary, the date has been moved to allow 15.000 young pilgrims visiting Turin, on their way to Rome for World Youth Day, to pay homage to the Shroud. The new date will also allow the young pilgrims to program a pilgrimage to Turin after World Youth Day.

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