March 6, 2010
Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish now home of Shroud of Turin exhibit
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Bishop Jaime Soto blesses the permanent exhibit “Who Is the Man of the Shroud?” at the exhibit’s opening at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sacramento. From left, Bishop Soto, Legionaries of Christ Father Lino Otero, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, and Legionaries Brother Andrés Emmanuelli. Luis Gris/Herald photo
In a modest brick building behind Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and national shrine in Sacramento is an attraction to be found in only two other cities in the world: Rome and Jerusalem.
Sacramento is now home to a replica of the permanent exhibit on the Shroud of Turin at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center in Jerusalem. Like the original 2006 exhibit, “Who Is the Man of the Shroud?,” the Sacramento exhibit includes 22 panels of scientific and historical information about the shroud and a replica of the Shroud of Turin given by Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin in northern Italy, as well as a holographic display and a life-sized sculpture made from the image on the cloth.
The shroud, which many Christians believe is the burial cloth of Jesus, is a 14-foot length of linen on which an image can be seen. The image depicts a man with injuries suggesting that he has been whipped, made to wear a crown of thorns, crucified, and impaled by a lance.
Legionaries of Christ Father Lino Otero, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, told The Herald that the Jerusalem exhibit posits that the image on the shroud acts like a photographic negative wrapped around a three dimensional object. Light areas on the shroud are actually dark, as in a photographic negative, and also closer to the fabric of the shroud, as when cloth is wrapped around an object.
In this interpretation of the image on the cloth, the nose, beard, and cheekbones of the image are closest to the cloth; the eyelids are farther away and the ears farther still.
Father Otero noted that the original exhibit was conceived by Legionaries of Christ Father Hector Guerra, who knew the work of the sculptor Luigi Mattei. Mattei had created a life-sized sculpture of the man of the shroud, as the image is called.
“If the shroud is authentic, the thinking goes, then this statue is the closest we have to seeing what Jesus looked like,” Father Otero said.
So Father Guerra conceptualized a permanent exhibit to explain scientific and historical information gathered about the shroud, Father Otero said. Father Guerra particularly wanted the holographic image and the sculpture of the man of the shroud to be on display. That way, the experience of walking through the exhibit would also be an opportunity for a meditation on the crucifixion, Father Otero added.
The exhibit includes a reconstruction of a crown of thorns, based on the imagery, as well as the nails used for crucifixion, a reconstruction of a whip used to inflict lash marks in the image, and a reconstruction of a lance, from historical data on Roman soldiers.
Private benefactors have funded the $100,000 Sacramento exhibit.
The Legionaries of Christ chose Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sacramento for its exhibit in North America because the parish is already a national shrine, drawing thousands of people each year, Father Otero said. The Legionaries of Christ want to make the exhibit available as widely as possible, he added.
To view the exhibit
The permanent exhibit on the Shroud of Turin at 1909 7th Street in Sacramento is open weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free; $2 donations for maintenance are accepted. To arrange for a guided tour, call the parish office in advance at (916) 442-3211.
