• The Chapel of the Shroud of Guarino Guarini reopens

The Chapel of the Shroud, a Baroque work by Guarino Guarini, severely damaged by the terrible fire of April 11, 1997, reopens after a complex restoration lasted 21 years. "We return a work of the highest value to Turin and to the whole world, a cultural work that has above all a symbolic value", says the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities, Alberto Bonisoli, during the ribbon cutting. The restoration - which cost 30 million euros - was financed by the ministry with the support of foundations and businesses in the city: the Compagnia di San Paolo, the La Stampa - Specchio dei Tempi Foundation, the Council for the enhancement of artistic and cultural heritage of Turin, Performance in Lighting and Iren. It will still be necessary to recover the altar, the works will begin in spring. The Chapel will be included in the tour of the Royal Museums of Turin. "The restoration has been a great challenge of technique and imagination, today we want to celebrate the rebirth of an amazing and unique work: twenty-one years are many but it has been a complex restoration", underlines the director of the Royal Museums, Enrica Pagella, while the Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia hopes that the Chapel, "even if it will not host the Shroud that has found its safe and stable location in the Cathedral, continues to be also that place of prayer, silence, meditation that has always been in these centuries". (ANSA, September 28, 2018 - Guerreschi Photo)

• Paul C. Maloney (1936 – 2018) of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, passed away at his home on Monday, August 27th, 2018. Born in Michigan, Paul was a remarkable and humble man who had achieved many things during his lifetime. He was an Archeologist, Anthropologist, and Geologist, and took a passion in Near Eastern Studies. He took special interest in the Shroud of Turin. His research spanned over three decades and he was known globally for his contributions. Paul was a college professor at two different universities – Vennard College and Penn Wesleyan College. He taught diverse courses; linguistics, theology, Greek, Hebrew, Biblical Studies, Archeology and Anthropology. Paul was a member of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Quakertown where he sang in the church choir and taught Sunday School. (www.nauglefcs.com/obituaries/Paul-Maloney-2/#!/Obituary, August 27, 2018)

• Towards the Synod. During the night 2,500 young people in front of the Shroud - Monsignor Cesare Nosiglia, archbishop of Turin and Pontifical Custodian of the Shroud, yesterday had the joy of opening the Duomo to a new audience, and a "different exhibition": during the night 2500 young people marched in procession before the chapel for an extraordinary veneration decided for the occasion of the great pilgrimage of the young people of Italy to Rome to meet Pope Francis. Everything was new: not a public display for everyone but a moment of prayer dedicated to young people, in the context of a spiritual and pastoral "journey" together. The installation is also very new: when entering the Cathedral the young people found a stone broken in half, flooded with light and surrounded by perfumes. Like the stone of the Sepulcher in Jerusalem, which guards an empty tomb ... then they "greeted" the chapel of Pier Giorgio Frassati, the young man of the eight Beatitudes. New was also the "reception" of the Shroud: the Cloth was not exposed on the main altar but it remained in the chapel - protected by glass but uncovered, at the feet of the young people who slowly marched in procession.

This different way of looking at the Shroud, of finding the image much more "close", has been studied specifically not for the sake of novelty but to seek a better solution to the contact with the Shroud image. A solution that also includes the study and application of a suitable lighting system, keeping the optimal conditions of conservation (temperature, humidity, etc.) intact. In his speech, the custodian Nosiglia underlined these changes by recalling that the Shroud today is above all a "pastoral" value. Yesterday the young people from the 17 dioceses of Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta were accompanied by other young Poles, French, Latin Americans that they had met during the previous World Youth Days. They all met at Valdocco for Mass at 6pm, and then went on together towards the Duomo. A "river" of young people like that has not been seen for some time. The scientific themes, the "scoops" that are never lacking in these periods, remain in the background. "Since 1898 the Cloth - said Nosiglia, among other things - has been subjected to investigations of all kinds; and it has been the subject of controversy, a tool for editorial and advertising strategies, even in the scientific field, which are far removed from real research and its objectives. But the Shroud has also represented the terrain for serious and respectful confrontation and meeting for many scientists who, each from their own positions, have worked together and helped to get to know the Cloth better». (Marco Bonatti, Avvenire, August 11, 2018)

• Robert Villarreal (1936-2018) of Los Alamos, New Mexico, passed away on March 8, 2018 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He is best known in Shroud circles for heading a team of eight colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory that verified and confirmed the observations of Ray Rogers regarding the anomalous nature of the 1988 radiocarbon dating sample (Barrie Schwortz, www.shroud.com/latebrak.htm#obits, June 21, 2018)

• Chapel of the Shroud: preparation has begun in sight of extraordinary youth worship

  At work in the Cathedral of Turin from March 14 in preparation for the appointment of August 10, 2018.

  Work began on March 14, 2018 in the Cathedral of Turin for the preparation of the chapel of the Shroud in view of the extraordinary veneration of young people to be held on the night of August 10, 2018. At the beginning of the work the Pontifical Custodian Msgr. Cesare Nosiglia, archbishop of Turin, was present. The planned works concern lighting and the approach path to the chapel.

  The pilgrimage of the young people of the dioceses of Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta was planned in preparation for the meeting that all the young people of Italy will have with Pope Francis in Rome in the days of August 15, 2018 and that will be a moment of prayer and confrontation for the World Synod on Youth, which will be held in Rome in October.

  The young people, coming from days of walking on foot in our regional territory, will meet together in the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale on August 9, and then they will proceed to the Cathedral on the evening of August 10. The visit to the Shroud, reserved for pilgrims, is the final moment of this "journey" before leaving for Rome. Registration has been opened and requests are already being received from dioceses outside the region and from abroad. Even the veneration of the Shroud of the young people, next August, promises therefore to be "international".

  This moment of visit is not an exhibition, but a new and different way of approaching the Shroud, an icon of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also an extraordinary sign of hope and new life.

  On the website www.sinodo2018.it it can be found all the details of the journey of preparation for the extraordinary veneration of August, together with information for the registration to the pilgrimage.(Diocese of Turin, March 14, 2018)

• A renowned sindonologist has left us: on March 2, 2018 in Lanuvio (Rome) countess Maria Grazia Siliato passed away at the age of 91 years old. Passionate about history and archeology, she had published various books about the Shroud for Piemme. She was a delegate for Italy of the C.I.E.L.T. (Centre International d’Etudes sur le Linceul de Turin) of Paris (France). We will remember with nostalgia her brilliant conferences (Corriere della Sera,  March 4, 2018)