| (or as Google Translation puts it, Holy Shroud: the greater Love: Interview with Marco Bonatti, Head of Communications of the Exposition in 2015 and ‘veteran’ of ostensions |
Here is a Google translation of the article provided by Russ Breault:
From Sunday, April 19 to Wednesday, June 24 -festa of St. John the Baptist , the patron saint of Torino in Turin new exposition of the Holy Shroud . Motto of the event : " the greatest Love ." The most recent expositions were in 1978 , 1998, 2000 , 2010 and 2013, only television and accompanied by a video message from Pope Francis . The exposition of 2015 was granted by Pope Francesco -the property of the Shroud is the Supreme Pontefice- , which will be present in Turin on June 21 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of St. John Bosco , founder of the Salesian Family : a ‘ Jubilee ‘ that will draw in Turin from all over the world the young ( and not so young ) who have attended schools , speakers and sports fields in the name of Don Bosco . 67 days because of exposition , the organizers point out , it was decided , in this way , to provide a time span as wide as possible both for the Pope’s visit , both for the pilgrimage to the Shroud of young people who will participate in the various celebrations of the Jubilee Salesian. " An exposition with young people and with the people who suffer ": thus , the Archbishop of Turin and Pontifical Custodian of the Holy Shroud Nosiglia , describes the exposition in 2015 , for the ‘ people of the Shroud ‘ , for the image remembers with such expressive power the Passion and death of Jesus Christ . .
A great event , and not just religious . The point about the state of the art was made last February 3 during a press conference by Maurizio Baradello , Director General of the Exposition , 2015. To date the reservations to visit the Shroud have almost reached 600 thousand , which means that there are prerequisites for more than two and a half million pilgrims who visited the Shroud in the first exposition of the third millennium , that of 2010. Cost of the operation : EUR 4 million , which covered over by the Archdiocese of Turin , from the Piedmont Region , Compagnia di San Paolo , Fondazione CRT (which , along with the Salesian Congregation , the City of Turin , Turin Metropolitan City , Iren , regional Directorate Mibac , are the promoters of the Exposition in 2015 ) and the remaining from the ‘ partner ‘ ( donors supplies materials and services ) , which are currently 42 , but the list , said Baradello , can stretch , flanked by ‘ media partners ‘ . The pool of these partners is the group Armando Testa -curatore of the advertising campaign for print and web- sites , the agency Hub09 -which will ensure the promotion of the event through social channels Facebook and Twitter , the hashtag is # sindone2015 – from water Valmora -activities water bottle labels Val Pellice is reproduced the logo of the exposition with an invitation to book a visit to Sindone- , by Shenker -ensuring the translation of the press releases in English-language , by the Regional Council of Piedmont and Seat Pagine Gialle -which is building a dedicated app for the exposition . The preparations have entered the decisive phase : the Cathedral of the city , the place that will host the exposition , was closed on 21 January and started the activities necessary to prepare the exposition and accommodate the flow of pilgrims . Iren services has the role of ‘ general contractor ‘ for everything related to the design and construction of the route , along the Royal Gardens until the Pre-reading and the Cathedral . It is also working to define all aspects of hospitality , from the youth to the ‘ day of the Pope ‘ ; with specific attention to encourage participation of the sick , disabled , disadvantaged groups . .
Professor Piero Savarino , scientific advisor to the Custodian of the Shroud and a member of the Commission for the Conservation of the Shroud , has led in recent days, a technical visit to the cathedral , the first of many before April. " The exposition requires a series of preparatory work in the cathedral to allow pilgrims access orderly and free of hazards and to be able to see the Shroud ," he explains . "You have to build the slides on which access will pass pilgrims and where you need to build support system the casket and his cart . We must also prepare all the lighting system of the cathedral and in particular the lighting system of the Shroud . It thus uses a generator of light without ultraviolet component , since the latter would be dangerous to the integrity of the Shroud image . Since the time of the exposition the Shroud is placed in the display case by exposition , we must establish the connections to the control systems and humidification systems Gas that at this juncture is nitrogen . Even during the exposition the Shroud must be maintained in a controlled atmosphere and protected . At the end of this preparatory work you must prepare the decorations around the cathedral . We must also emphasize the need to proceed with the work for the preparation of the ‘ pre – reading ‘ , ie the site crossed by pilgrims before entering the cathedral and adequately equipped to be able to correctly read the signs found on the cloth of the Shroud . At the end of the preparatory work and immediately before the start of the period ostensive we proceed to extract from the shrine of conservation, the cart on which is bound to the shroud and put it in the casket of exposition . " Marco Bonatti , Head of Communications of the Exposition 2015 is among the ‘ veterans ‘ of the expositions of the Shroud of Turin , since 1978 he lived all . .
Mark, you told me of a priest who has ‘ lived ‘ the exhibitions of 1931 and 1933 , which for so lived all expositions of the ‘ 900 and you will make the fourth exposition of the XXI century . It’s called Italo Ruffino , is the dean of the priests in Turin. In expositions of 1931 and 1933 was a seminarian , and among his duties was to accompany to see the Shroud priests and bishops foreigners who came to visit . Remember to have brought in several prelates eastern Duomo , including those coming from South India , where Christian churches are very old and have traditions and rituals -including the abiti- different . Actually in ostensions postwar Monsignor Ruffino no longer worked , he was a parish priest in the historic center -sicuramente came on a pilgrimage to the Shroud but had no special role in the monstrance . Simply, it is the only one to have experienced 6 ( the public ) . 1978 big exposition , but a date that has remained in the history of the Shroud for investigation STURP , 120 hours , from 8 to 13 October , during which more than 40 scientists from around the world bent on the cloth made a series of withdrawals who would then powered multi-year studies . What can you tell us of those 120 hours ? The proceedings were held in a hall of the Royal Palace , began after the end of the exposition , then outside the climate of the pilgrimage . The environment of the research communicated a strong contrast between the stucco of the Royal Palace and the photographic equipment that -in 1978- seemed to come from the future … The Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero will be recalled , referring to the Shroud , for radiocarbon dating . It is said that Ballestrero lived with much suffering the path that led to dating. Tell us about this suffering ? Cardinal Ballestrero will be remembered for having decided to promote , just arrived in Turin ( entered as archbishop September 25, 1977 ) the first public exhibition of the postwar period , which proved a great interest , religious and cultural , the Shroud . The 3 million pilgrims who came to Turin in those days testify first of all that the Shroud exercises a ‘ reminder ‘ to the strong faith of each ; and that the exposition may become an important opportunity for pilgrimage , to rethink about his faith . The C14 was 10 years later, and has little to do with this ‘ pastoral centrality ‘ of the Shroud and the exposition . The whole affair matured and was held in collaboration with the Holy See , the owner of the Cloth for testamentary decision of Umberto II of Savoy . –.
1998 , 57 days of exposition . You were the Editor of ‘ The Voice of the People ‘ as memories quell’ostensione ? Like the city he lived ? It is correct considering it the first showing of ‘ big event ‘ ? I never felt that you were living the exposition as an ‘ event ‘ , nor the Church nor between organizations that , since 1998 , alongside the diocese in the preparation and organization. Between public administrators and professionals representatives of the City and Province of Turin , Piedmont Region who have worked in the Committee preparer there has always been the precise awareness that the exposition is a religious celebration , an ‘ event ‘ , if anything , of faith . Around it are created and promoted cultural events , there is an involvement of the city and the system of culture and tourism . But it seems to me there has always been , by all the promoters, the attention to respect and preserve the spiritual character of this pilgrimage . All the more because you see the Shroud are not only believers Catholics but Christians a bit ‘ all denominations , believers of other religions , indifferent , agnostics … In 1978, the exposition was held in the context of hard ‘ years of lead ‘ , in a city that he felt besieged by terrorism -and despite this there were no incidents . While twenty years after the climate was completely different , and the ’98 began to grow the interest even of the world are not strictly ecclesial against the exposition . We must also remember that all the people of Turin were very impressed by the fire in 1997 that destroyed the Guarini Chapel , a heritage that everyone felt as his own, a ‘ sign of beauty ‘ that is the image that we all carry in the city . There was also a great popular participation in raising funds for reconstruction . The exposition of the following year was a party because it was understood that the Church , and all the ‘ system Torino ‘ had passed the test , they had gritted my teeth and went forward. It is this climate of involvement and participation that has been preserved even in the expositions of 2000 and 2010 , and we hope to repeat today ..
Have you seen ‘ pass ‘ many Popes ‘ front ‘ to the Shroud . We do share your memories in particular John Paul II and Benedict XVI ? The Pope’s visit is in some way the culmination , the focal point of the exposition . In ’98 as in 2010 and in 2015 you realize how much attention , how much affection there is for the Pope . We are receiving requests and proposals of all kinds to the day of Francis in Turin , also by associations, circles, groups not Religious , by individuals who write to say : ‘ I want to be close to the Pope , for a moment ‘ . Sure , you think to Selfie , on occasion of visibility , it is normal thing these days . But he also understands that behind many of these requests is not only curiosity , not only opportunities but the desire to seize ‘ firsthand ‘ a word , a gesture of love . This is especially true with Francis, who from the beginning has infected everyone with his gestures out of the protocol , with his humanity so direct . But I remember well the same affection , the same attention when preparing the visits of John Paul and Benedict ..
Much of the scientific community laments the inaccessibility to the Shroud to create new analysis , stressing that today you have the knowledge and tools that would allow much progress in the study of the Cloth . Because the Church does not come open the Shroud scholars ? The first task of the Church towards the Shroud ( and of all humanity , I would say ) is to study and ensure the optimal storage conditions of the Cloth . This work has been started since the 90s , with the international working group wanted by Cardinal Saldarini : from those studies was an indication, for example , to preserve the Shroud extended and not coiled , to avoid the formation of creases on fabric. An indication that involved the change of the whole environment in which guard the Shroud . In 2000 , in the spring , was held in Turin a ‘ Symposium ‘ international scientists from around the world , scholars of different scientific problems that the Shroud offers . From that conference were formulated proposals for new research , ideas that have been studied , coordinate projects . In 2002 he was made a restoration of great importance to ‘ clean up ‘ the tissue debris from Chambery . It is important to remember these steps because each of them has been accomplished with the help of scientists from around the world , and the procedures and the results of these interventions are well known to the international scientific community . The new digital technologies allow today , and perhaps even more in the future , studies ‘ non-invasive ‘ Shroud : I think it is in this direction that will move the next research projects .