The Church has long held that the Shroud is an aid to devout veneration, in bringing Our Crucified Lord graphically to our minds --- whether it is an authentic relic or something else.
I stand by this point of view.
In the Fall of 1933 the Shroud was publicly displayed in the Cathedral of Turin. One of the people who saw it was Hans Scholl, a 15-year-old German vacationing in Italy. His bio says that Scholl was deeply moved by this "real icon" of Christ and the evidence of His grievous death for the salvation of the world.
Scholl returned to Germany, quit the Hitler Youth to which head briefly belonged, and within 10 years died a martyr's death as one of the leaders of the anti-Hitler Resistance. He was beheaded, at age 25, in Munich's Stedelheim Prison in 1943.
I don't say the Shroud "caused" his heroism. The enlightenment of souls in a mystery in the hands of God. But I would say that anything God uses that stirs the heart, strengthens the Faith, and turns a person away from the path of death, is--- well, a good thing. A very good thing.
Amen?
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1918 - 1943
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