×Back NextØ Contents

What If? Documentary:

The Real Thing 
Just because a piece of cloth was made in the
first century AD it doesn't mean that it once covered the body of
Christ. You can say that as many times as you want, but it won't alter
the fact that millions of Christian believers have made precisely that
leap of faith. There have now been three separate scientific studies and
there seems to be no doubt - the shroud does date from exactly the
time of Christ. The Cathedral of Turin has been under siege ever since
the first announcement . 
Some say the Vatican handled it badly - it was months before
the Pope visited the relics - and by that time the "shroudists" were
beginning to look more like a breakaway movement. People find it
easier to have a genuine relic, more holy than anything. Some are even
saying they don't need the Pope anymore. Is this the worst crisis that
Christianity has ever faced? After exactly two thousand years, is the
Catholic church about to be taken over? 
False Witness talks to people who claim to have been healed by
the shroud's magic and to those, inside the Church and out, who fear
its power.

×Back NextØ Contents Top