Holy or Hoax, Shroud Still a Draw

From the Houston Chronicle:

The performances of skaters and skiers and bobsledders and hockey players certainly will draw the crowds of Turin. The heavy fog that often settles in like a blanket over the mountains of the Piedmont region could bring the clouds of Turin.

But nothing that happens on a rink, ramp or moguls hill could ever light the fire of faith or kick up a swirl of debate like the old city's most famous relic — the Shroud of Turin.

In Italian, it is known as Santissima Sindone (Holy Shroud). According to tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, it is the burial cloth in which Jesus Christ was wrapped after he was taken from the cross.

The Shroud has been in Turin since 1578, when it was brought from France by Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, and for more than four centuries has attracted pilgrims and believers, scientists and skeptics, who if not agreeing on facts, always have shared a sense of wonder and curiosity.

It is a linen sheet, roughly 13 feet long and just over 3 feet wide, that bears, in almost photographic detail, the pained, agonizing image of a man who died as a result of crucifixion. There are wounds and droplets of blood on the face of the bearded man that are compatible with a crown of thorns, as well as bruises and wounds in the flesh that would seem to indicate flogging with a whip and carrying of a heavy cross.

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When the Winter Olympics are long gone, Santissima Sindone will continue to draw the crowd of Turin.
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My Comments:
Yet it's not so significant a relic as to draw one word from NBC's commentators during the Turin Olympics opening ceremonies. That would be a little like holding the Olympics in Salt Lake City and never mentioning the Mormons.