I like to think that all we do in studying the shroud and talking and writing
about it finds its most important expression in voices like this one.

imageOn Tuesday this week, Tim Lasiuta wrote about the shroud in the local Innisfail Province newspaper. Innisfail is a small agricultural town, midpoint between Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta. The population is just shy of 8,000 people:

The Shroud of Turin is a true mystery of the ages.

Whether or not you believe it is or is not the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, whether you dismiss it as medieval fake or a roughly 2,000-year-old piece of linen from the Jerusalem area, its existence makes you take a stand.

Last week, my wife and I went to St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in Red Deer to see the venerated Shroud of Turin, or at least the ninth copy in North America, and the experience was amazing.

[ . . . ]

Having seen the copy first-hand, I can say there are some things you need to experience in life.

You just never know how you will respond.

Ninth copy refers to one of nine copies of the shroud Pope Benedict XVI approved and individually blessed for display in tours around the world.