Summary Collaboration was written by Reverend Fr. John Ringley, Mr. John Iannone, Holy Shroud of Turin Expert, Cindy Lucignano – Divine Mercy Advocate and Photographer
On Thursday, March 15, 2018 the Cathedral Parish in Bridgeport, Connecticut hosted an eye opening presentation on the Shroud of Turin, the Burial Cloth of Jesus. Reverend Father John Ringley gave an outstanding talk to an enthusiastic crowd of 178 people based on the book and slide show by John Iannone entitled, The Mystery of the Holy Shroud of Turin: the Case for Authenticity.
The Shroud of Turin is thought by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus, and Mr. Iannone’s book attempts to gather the evidence to make the case that the Shroud of Turin is, in fact, just that.
The remarkable presentation highlighted various aspects of the mystery of the Shroud of Turin including the forensic, or scientific evidence which suggest that the Shroud of Turin has its origins in the area of Jerusalem around the time of Jesus. Microscopic pollen particles indicate that it also spent time in Edessa, four hundred miles north of Jerusalem, Constantinople, and France. It is currently kept in Turin which is located in Northern Italy.
The Shroud of Turin is not the only ancient burial cloth to have been found and studied, but it is the only one ever found to have an image impressed on it. Scientists are unsure of how the image was formed, but it seems to have been made by a short and intense burst of light or radiation.
The Shroud of Turin is almost certainly the burial of a man written in blood; the blood of a man who was tortured, scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and whose right side was pierced. In addition, the Shroud of Turin shows that the man had a cap of thorns pushed down onto the top of his head.
There is no record of “Crowning With Thorns” having been a part of the typical Roman crucifixion ritual other than that of Jesus Christ recorded for us in the Gospels.
In the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. “The Image impressed upon the Shroud of Turin is that of a dead man, but the blood speaks of his life. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life. Especially that huge stain near his rib, made by the blood and water that flowed copious from the great wound inflicted by the tip of a Roman spear. That blood and that water speak of life. It is like a spring that murmurs in the silence, and we can hear it, we can listen to it in the silence of Holy Saturday.” In conclusion, Mr. John Iannone makes a convincing case that the Shroud of Turin is, in fact, the authentic burial cloth of Jesus Christ – Lord and Savior.
In addition, a life-size Divine Mercy Vilnius image was on display throughout the presentation as there is an interesting connection, or even a Divine Coincidence, between the Shroud of Turin and the original Vilnius, Divine Mercy Image.
When the Divine Mercy Image is overlaid on the face of Jesus Christ on the 1966 high-resolution image of the Shroud of Turin, we see a beautiful composite that shows that the features and proportions align. This is as close as we can get to a photograph of the face of Jesus Christ. In the words of St. Thomas of Aquinas. “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
In the words of Jesus Our Savior. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on Earth, especially at the hour of Death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory {St. Faustina Diary 48}. O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in Thee!
