Centro Mexicano de Sindonología
(ANSA) Turin, March 27
Pope Francis will appear on TV to introduce the second-ever appearance of the Holy Shroud of Turin on Italian airwaves Saturday. "It will be a message of intense spiritual scope, charged with positivity, which will help (people) never to lose hope," said Turin Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia in announcing Wednesday the pope's intro for the famous relic bearing the imprint of a Christ-lke body. The shroud, revered as the winding sheet used to cover Christ's body after the crucifixion but carbon-dated to the Middle Ages, will be shown on state broadcaster RAI's first channel from 17:10 to 18:40 Saturday, the day before the Easter feast commemorating the resurrection. Catholic scientific experts have disputed the carbon dating indicating the shroud is a medieval forgery and said they have found traces of pollen from the Holy Land. The Catholic Church has neither formally endorsed nor rejected the shroud, which bears an apparently burned-on image of a dead man resembling classic depictions of Christ.