Pope Benedict made a pilgrimage today to Manopello, Italy, to the shrine of the Image of the Holy Face, a 9x6-inch cloth that carries a front-and-back image believed to be that of Jesus. Here is the background on the Holy Face image.
Father Pfeiffer notes that the facial image on the cloth can be superimposed on the Shroud of Turin, and the features correspond perfectly. He suggests that the two images were created at the same time, during the time between the Crucifixion and Resurrection, in the sepulcher where Christ’s body lay.
According to Father Pfeiffer, then, the image in Manoppello is not Veronica’s veil, but another image of Christ that, like the Shroud of Turin, was created by some unknown process, and “not made by human hands.” In any case it is a “true icon,” worthy of veneration, he says.
This is at least the second such mini-pilgrimage the Pope has made during his month-long stay at the summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.
At the shrine, he said: “Let us seek the face of the Lord; together let us try to see the Lord’s face, and through Him find the way for our lives.” He also addressed some seminarians present: “Do not let yourself become attached to anything other than Jesus and the desire to serve the Church.”
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