Pope Francis plans to visit Turin, Italy, in June 2015. The Holy Father made the announcement while greeting the Italian pilgrims during his Wednesday General Audience today.
“I am pleased to announce that, God willing, on June 21st I will go on a pilgrimage to Turin to venerate the Holy Shroud and honor Saint John Bosco, on the bicentennial anniversary of his birth,” the Pope said.
Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of Turin as well as the mayor of Turin, Piero Fassino ,were present in St. Peter’s Square. They will be holding a press conference on next year’s exposition of the Shroud of Turin and the 200th anniversary of St. John Bosco’s birth.
While the authenticity of the Shroud has neither been confirmed nor denied by the Vatican, devotion to the image entitled the Holy Face of Jesus was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1958.
Pope Francis sent a video message last year on the occasion of the Shroud’s exposition at the Cathedral in Turin, in which he said that “the Man of the Shroud invites us to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth.”
“By means of the Holy Shroud, the unique and supreme Word of God comes to us: Love made man, incarnate in our history; the merciful Love of God who has taken upon himself all the evil of the world in order to free us from its power,” he said.
