Shroud of Turin Program

Shrouded by Lack of Information

Oh drat it. There is a report that, on March 31st (Good Friday and just happens to be my mother's birthday this year), there will be an international "viewing" of the Shroud of Turin. This is a gift of ex-Pope Benedict and Pope Francis is expected to talk before the viewing. I want so much to see this.

The problem is that there is NO information about timing. I found two ITALIAN times (11:10 AM and 17:10–18:40) but these are very imprecise. Why aren't they on the hour? What do they mean in terms of U.S. programming? An Italian station is broadcasting this but there is no mention of what U.S. stations will pick this up. Nor do I know if any of this will be captioned. Too many of the religious stations do not have captioning, so I get all my religion-related viewing on TV from other channels, such as the History, Discovery, H2, National Geographic, and other educational channels.

I dearly would love to know what Pope Francis will say about the Shroud. I have been fascinated with it for years. It is a point of interest whether or not this Shroud is genuinely the cloth that was wrapped around Jesus after he was taken down from the Cross. However, my feeling is that, even if it were proven to be an extremely clever artwork, it conveys something of importance to Christians everywhere. The depiction is good and suggestive of the Passion.

Let us put our skepticism aside and enjoy the wonder of this sacred Cloth no matter how it was created. And I await with great curiosity the words of Pope Francis.

I just hope I can get the thing on TV over here—WITH CAPTIONS. Dare I utter a prayer for this?