The judge’s ruling gives a reprieve, from possible destruction, to the over 500,000 human embryos that are currently stored in liquid nitrogen tanks in fertility clinics in the United States, a number comparable to the entire population of the state of Wyoming.  And, because our country does not have any laws to regulate the infertility industry, thousands of human embryos are being created each month and sentenced to be part of the half-million embryos in frozen orphanages.

Father Tad Pacholczyk, the Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, in an interview with Catholic Exchange, said the practice of freezing human embryos is one of “the greatest humanitarian tragedies of our time.”

This week, opponents of Judge Lamberth’s decision are moving quickly to get the ruling either overturned or to get Congress to change the law to allow human embryonic research back on track. One possible option in Congress would be to lift the funding freeze by modifying the language of the Dickey-Wicker amendment.  This is the amendment that has been attached to spending bills since 1996 which prohibits the use of federal funds for research that destroys human embryos.

President Obama’s Executive Order attempted to get around the Dickey-Wicker amendment by saying that federal funding could only be used in research on the stem cells harvested from human embryos; it could not fund the actual killing of the human embryos themselves. Judge Lamberth saw through the ruse, and said the federal prohibition, “encompasses all ‘research in which’ an embryo is destroyed, not just the ‘piece of research’ in which the embryo is destroyed.”

An Important Decision

Father Pacholczyk told Catholic Exchange that while he was surprised by the judge’s ruling, it was hugely significant. “I would say it is a very important decision because it constitutes the central issue in the minds of many scientists; namely is the federal government going to be funding the kind of research that some scientists would like to do with human embryos?”

Father Pacholczyk, who earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale University and did post-doctoral studies at Harvard University, said while the issue is complicated to some, “embryonic human life is inviolable and deserving of unconditional respect.”

Scientists and others who claim that the human embryos are needed for research and would simply be wasted are not painting a complete picture, explained Father Pacholczyk.

“The situation is given a false dichotomy very often that ‘it is either this or that.’ Either the embryos will be thrown away or we could get some wondrous and miraculous cures if you would just let us have them. I think that is what the average person supposes, but the fact of the matter is we should never be throwing away a fellow human being. So the first point can never be granted. No, of course we cannot throw them away, these are our children, trapped in frozen orphanages and we have the duty to protect them and safeguard them to best of our ability and not hand them over to be destroyed for research purposes.”

In the next several weeks Congress may go in and attempt to tinker with the Dickey-Wicker amendment to allow federal funding to destroy human embryos. Instead, Father Pacholczyk said what should be done is to create and pass far-reaching Embryo Protection Laws.

“The temptation to dehumanize our own human brothers and sisters is a perennial one, hearkening back to the time in our country when slaves could be considered three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation. Treating embryos as zero-fifths of a person constitutes an even more deplorable human rights violation. The smallest members of our human family deserve legal protection,” said Father Pacholczyk.

“In Germany and Italy they have passed laws that prevent the creation of human embryos by fertility clinics unless they are used during the implantation process,” he added.

“Laws like those in Germany and Italy, while they would not stop every injustice done to embryos,” emphasized Father Pacholczyk, “They could go a long way towards stemming the tide and assuring that further forms of laboratory barbarism and human exploitation do not become commonplace.”

Research is Moving Forward without Human Embryos

Science is moving forward without using human embryos. Researchers are using animal embryos, adult stem cells, umbilical cord stem cells and other methods to treat and potentially develop new cellular therapies for several life-threatening diseases.  Catholic Exchange talked to Dr. Keith March, Professor of Medicine, Cellular and Integrative Physiology, and Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Vascular and Cardiac Adult Stem Cell Therapy Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Dr. March and his team are on the vanguard of adult stem cell research, creating medical therapies using stem cells taken from a patient’s own body.  There are hopes that one day diseases like emphysema, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, to name a few, could be cured using stem cells harvested from our own bodies.  Dr. March indicated that this approach may be medically a very feasible solution, while being free of moral controversy.

Armstrong: Since research dollars are limited, can people expect the same bang for their buck if we invested solely in adult stem cell research and did not spend another penny ever on human embryonic stem cell research?

Dr. March: Adult stem cells have been used in treating diseases in a variety of situations for a number of years with great success.  Many people know about bone marrow transplants and umbilical cord transplants occurring over the last two decades; and they have saved tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives.  I don’t think people realize that these are adult stem cells at work.  More funding is certainly required to advance this type of success.

The stem cells from the blood forming system have been used to aid and, in many cases, to cure people of cancers and blood diseases as well.

What is happening now in the field relates to exploring further possible utility of stem cells which are obtained from your own body.  Examples of sources include one’s own bone marrow, fat, skin, and even hair follicles, among others.  Some have found that the area above the nose is a practical source of neural stem cells.

One exciting thing about such stem cells is that each cell type can be readily obtained from the human body in a minimally invasive way.  And such stem cells are in literally hundreds of clinical trials all over the world.  It is an exciting time for the field.

Armstrong: And yet, Dr. March, there are those who believe without access to Human Embryonic Stem Cells, somehow science is missing out on potential cures for diseases.  Do you have a comment on that?

Dr. March: From a clinical standpoint, adult stem cells are the ones that have demonstrated success to date.  Adult stem cells make the most sense from a practical and pragmatic approach to the repair and rescue of human organs or tissues, from diseases.  That’s because the adult stem cells have that normal function.  Adult stem cells normally function to repair and rebuild tissues in which they exist.  There are many additional diseases for which adult stem cells are currently being evaluated.

However with an embryonic stem cell, along the same lines of reasoning here, their normal function is actually to build an embryo.  Their purpose is to create all the tissues and organs needed for embryonic development, rather than to do tissue repair.

Armstrong: And isn’t it true that using cells from your own body to cure a disease or regenerate an organ, instead from someone else’s embryo, would eliminate rejection issues?

Dr. March: Certainly if you are getting the stem cells from your own body, there is not going to be a substantial issue of rejection.

Armstrong: I understand that many trials are underway on adult stem therapies but they are having difficulty finding candidates, in part, because people are confused between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells, correct?

Dr. March: That’s correct.  Right now there are a range of trials all over the world, including trials involving poor circulation, multiple sclerosis and heart disease among many others  I think we all recognize that all of these are still preliminary with adult stem cells.  But a message that needs to get out there is these trials need patients.  A challenge for us is to get patients enrolled in these promising adult stem cell trials.

People are often not aware that adult stem cells are in clinical trials.  Perhaps this may be because much attention has been brought to embryonic stem cell therapy and the controversy surrounding it, and little attention is provided to adult stem cell clinical trials that are underway all over the world. It would be helpful to change that perspective.

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With the limited funding that is available in general for medical research and the skyrocketing cost of medical care in general, many scientists and physicians like Dr. March and his colleagues believe it makes financial and moral sense to continue on with the research into adult stem therapies by funding and promoting those clinical trials with adult stem cells.

While Congress typically doesn’t move quickly on issues, it will see enormous pressure to act on changing the Dickey-Wicker amendment or to overturn Judge Lamberth’s decision in the coming weeks and provide a mechanism for research dollars for embryonic stem cell research.  The destruction of over a half-million frozen human embryos in the United States is at stake.

Whatever happens, it doesn’t change the fact that over half-million human embryos remain in frozen orphanages across the United States without a moral way out of their dilemma. And couples who continue to want to have children through in vitro fertilization, without a law to the contrary, will continue to sentence more human embryos to their frozen crypts.

Web Resources

National Catholic Bioethics Center: www.ncbcenter.org

President Barack Obama’s Executive Order: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Removing-Barriers-to-Responsible-Scientific-Research-Involving-Human-Stem-Cells/

Dr. Keith March, Vascular and Cardiac Adult Stem Cell Therapy Center: http://stemcellsignature.iupui.edu/

Armstrong: It sounds like those people who liked the movie, Stand by Me, are going to like this new movie, Flipped.

Reiner: I think so, but in this case it is much more of a family film.  Even though Flipped takes places during the same time period as Stand by Me, and covers the same age, 12-13 year olds, that critical time in life, these films really are companions in a way.  Stand by Me really focused on the strong bounds of friendship that boys have at that age, Flipped is about those powerful, confusing feelings when you first fall in love.

Armstrong: What exactly does Flipped mean?

Reiner: Number one it is the feeling you have when you first fall in love, you flip over somebody. Secondly it is the flipping back and forth between the two different points of view, the boy’s and girl’s point of view in the movie.

This movie is also about two families who live across the street from each other and the values that those two families impart to those kids. Each family has a different set of values that contribute to the upbringing of their kids.

Armstrong: Did you have a relationship, a first love, like the one in the movie when you were growing up?

Reiner: Absolutely! You never forget your first love. I think that is what makes the film work so well because it is a strong powerful feeling. In Stand By Me there is this line at the end, ‘you never have friends like when you were 12.’ And it is true, you remember back to those childhood friendships. In this case, I don’t think anyone forgets the first time they fell in love or the first girl they had a crush on. So, yes, it was exactly what I felt like when I was going through that.

Armstrong: You grew up in a movie-making family, so wasn’t your experience different than the small town Americana portrayed in the movie?

Reiner: I don’t think it was that different, because it is the same regardless of what household you grow up in, and this was an interesting lesson that I learned years ago, when I made Stand By Me.  After seeing that film, somebody came up to me and said, ‘Boy I loved that movie it reminded me of my childhood.’ And I said, ‘Oh you grew up in a rural area?’ And he said, ‘No I grew up in Manhattan.’

I realized at that point it wasn’t about where you grew up or who you grew up with, it was about the feelings you had when you made those connections with the friends you had then. It doesn’t matter whether you are from a rich Hollywood background with a famous father, or a poor background without the famous father; the feelings that you have are the same when you fall in love when you are 12-years old.

I had those feelings when I was 12-years old, with Kathleen Schrillo and I will never forget her. She lived a couple of blocks from me.  She was a Catholic girl, I was a Jewish boy and I loved her dearly. She looked like Hayley Mills from Parent Trap. She had this blonde curly hair and she was a Tom-boy.  We had exchanged ID bracelets and I remember going to try and kiss her and she hit me with a hairbrush!

Armstrong: It seems like Hollywood is making more family oriented movies these days.  Is there a trend taking place?

Reiner: I hope so!  These are the movies that I like to make. I like to watch a movie and not feel like it is just for kids or just for adults.  I think this is a movie both kids and adults will enjoy together.

At the end of the day these are businesses and they need to make money at the box office. And all they these big conglomerates care about is the bottom-line.  So if they can get some picture that can make money, that’s what they look for.  Last year there was Blind Side and that did enormous business and so there are films out there that can attract families to the box office.

I guarantee you that Flipped is a movie you can take your whole family to and enjoy it and not have to worry about it.

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The making of the movie was a family experience as well. Because there were young people on the set—not only the actors but often Reiner’s children and those of the cast—Reiner said he established a Swear Box to discourage profanity, with a $20 fine for each violation. It was no joke, according to one cast member “Sometimes, you don’t even realize what you’re saying. I forgot a line one time and let fly with a filthy word and I paid up. But, I must say, I’m not the only one who contributed to that box.”

One crew member was so startled to be flagged and fined that he unconsciously responded with a follow-up curse, immediately doubling his penalty and breaking up everyone within earshot.

The kids involved in the filming of the movie loved it. One said, “Every time someone swore Rob would jump up and say, ‘You owe $20!’ Honestly, he was the coolest. He always made everything more fun than you thought it could be.”

Flipped is rated PG by the MPAA for language and some thematic material. www.flipped-movie.com

International relief agencies continue to be the main source of aid to the people who live in tent cities and shantytowns.  It is a scary time for these agencies because hurricane season is underway.  If one bears down on the Port-au-Prince area, which is already in ruins, a terrible situation will only get worse.

In the midst of this backdrop there are amazing stories of grace. Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of Mary’s Meals, just returned from Haiti to see how the agency was responding six months after the earthquake. Mary’s Meals is an international movement to set up school feeding projects in communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from attaining an education. It was named for Our Blessed Mother and originally started in 1993 in Croatia. Today, it provides daily meals in school for over 375,000 children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Mary’s Meals partners with other organizations on the ground in hosts countries.  In Haiti, Mary’s Meals began a remarkable partnership several years before the earthquake with a middle-age priest Father Tom Hagen and his group, “Hands Together.”

Father Tom Hagen and his school

Up until 1989, Father Tom Hagan lived a comfortable life as the campus chaplain for Princeton University.  That all changed after taking a group of affluent students to Haiti and seeing the abject poverty there.  That led to Father Hagan to form an organization called “Hands Together” that worked to feed and educate children in the poorest, slums of Port au Prince.  In 1997, Father Tom moved to Haiti to personally direct the efforts there and in 2006 began a partnership with Mary’s Meals.

When the earthquake struck, friends of Father Hagan had no way of knowing if he had survived or not.  Finally a call came through the next day letting people back in the USA know that Father Hagan was being flown back to Miami for treatment of a head wound. Two days later Father Tom flew from Miami back to Port-au-Prince to assist his organization and Mary’s Meals re-establish operations to help feed and educate those that have survived the devastation.

MacFarlane-Barrow said that since the quake, Father Tom is the only priest to tend to the spiritual needs of the 500,000 people that live ineither the rubble from their homes or tents that are strewn everywhere.  Home is Cite Soleil slum, 3 miles from downtown Port-au-Prince built atop a former landfill.

“We work with ‘Hands Together’, which is the organization that Father Tom set up before the earthquake,” said MacFarlane-Barlow.

“Each day we provide 6,000 meals to school children. The original buildings were destroyed in the quake and so temporary wooden classrooms were set up on the playgrounds. It is amazing to watch as a teacher in New York, using ‘Skype’ webcams into one of the classrooms from New York to teach an English class, with a donated laptop powered by a donated generator.  It is surreal.”

Meantime MacFarlane-Barrow says the parents of the students are working around the clock to repair the cement walls of the schools that were destroyed in the quake.  They are also ensuring, through new building techniques, that the rebuilt school buildings, will withstand another earthquake or hurricane.

More Prayers and Donations Needed

In addition to feeding 6,000 school kids and providing jobs and food for those relatives involved in the reconstruction of the schools, Mary’s Meals is providing daily meals for around 2,000 senior citizens.  MacFarlane-Barrow said he is amazed at the happiness displayed by people in spite of having lost family members or had their livelihoods destroyed by the quake.

“I was struck by their happiness in the midst of all of this,” said MacFarlane-Barrow. “Everywhere we went, they greeted us with singing and dancing — and smiles – always their smiles.  They are incredible people.”

Still it is a daunting task when an organization like Mary’s Meals can help just a few thousand and Father Tom is the only priest for a half-million people.

“We always concentrate on the people that God puts in front of us.  We always think about that and take great inspiration from people like Father Tom who says ‘what we do here is humility in action and we need to be realistic about what we can do,’” said MacFarlane-Barrow.

Father Tom doesn’t even have the luxury of living in one of the temporary wooden schools he helped to build.  Instead, he lives in a tent while 12 seminarian students live in a nearby broken bus.

There is still great sorrow in the Church in Haiti.  Scores of priests and religious, including Archbishop Joseph Miot, perished in the quake. A local artist is painting the face of the late Archbishop on a wall of a small office that Father Tom uses. Father Tom was due to visit the Archbishop shortly after the time the earthquake struck and threw him to his death from his balcony.  The great Cathedral in Port-au-Prince and many churches were destroyed and none of them have been rebuilt.

MacFarlane-Barrow said when Father Tom celebrates Mass, it is outside now.

“On the little tree, under which he celebrates Mass, hangs a very broken crucifix. The plaster figure of Jesus has been smashed and has lost its legs. Wires protrude from limbs where the plaster has fallen away,” said MacFarlane-Barrow.

“This was Father Tom’s family crucifix that hung in his house in Philadelphia as he grew up. After he became a priest, he always had it in his home. So, he was delighted when it was salvaged from the rubble of his fallen house here.”

Father Tom told MacFarlane-Barrow that he never intends to fix the cross.  “No,” said MacFarlane-Barrow.

“Father Tom told me,‘I won’t ever repair it. I will keep it just like this. It reminds us that Jesus is broken too, with us,’” said MacFarlane-Barrow.

Anyone wishing to help with donations to Mary’s Meals and also assist Father Tom, please contact their organization through http://marysmealsusa.org

To follow them on Twitter go to: www.twitter/marysmeals

What’s a Catholic to do?

Let’s not mince words here. We’ve got a problem. Last fall a new study published in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal Pediatrics found a parent-reported autism prevalence rate of one in every 91 American children, including one in 58 boys. For years, groups like Autism Speaks and public figures like Jenny McCarthy and John Travolta have been trying to find out what is causing this dramatic rise in the number of reported cases of autism. For a time, vaccines were thought to be the culprit because of the thimerosal (a mercury preservative) contained in some vaccines. Now something even more sinister may be the deadly link: the DNA from voluntarily aborted babies that is used as a base ingredient in many childhood vaccines. New research is underway now after the latest findings reinforced the fact that the use of these tainted vaccines correlate perfectly with the spike in autism rates around the world.

This spring Dr. Theresa Deisher, president of the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI), as well as development director for Ave Maria Biotechnology Company received a half-million dollar grant to study the link between residual DNA from voluntarily aborted babies in childhood vaccines and autism.  This comes on the heels of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcing that they had analyzed a subset of worldwide autism disorder incidence data and indentified 1988 as a critical “changepoint” in the rate of rise of autism.

According to Dr. Deisher the only environmental event correlating with this statistical autism trend and the “changepoint” the EPA identified was the introduction of vaccines tainted with the tissues from voluntarily aborted babies.  And there is even more alarming news when you look at other “changepoints” both in the USA and the rest of the world:

We see a change point in 1988 and then we see another change point in 1995 and what both years are associated with is not mercury in the vaccines, it is not relaxed diagnosis (of autism), it is not microwaves, it is not cell phones, it is not sunscreen… it is not any of these sociological or environmental factors because we have looked at them all.

So what is it?

The one event we can find over decades and across continents that is associated with ALL these “changepoints” is the introduction to these countries of aborted fetal cells in produced vaccines.

One of the “changepoints” correlates in the United States with 1995, the same year the chicken pox vaccine tainted with aborted babies was introduced. “And the autism rise from that year forward is dramatic after that year,” said Deisher, who went on:

Further, vaccinating your children against chicken pox may not even be necessary.

Chicken pox vaccine is a vaccine purely for convenience. We have mostly two-parent income families and for them chicken pox is very inconvenient.  Before the tainted-vaccine was available, one million children got chicken pox every year in this country. And according to the Centers for Disease Control 135 children died.  Compare this to 1 in 91 who will develop autism.

Fair Labeling

A lot of parents would like to know if the vaccines they are injecting into their child were produced using the tissues from voluntarily aborted babies. Even if they are not worried about inflicting autism on their child, many Catholic parents believe it is morally reprehensible and against Church teachings. Unfortunately, it is not easy to determine which vaccines are abortion-free.

No law requires companies to tell parents which vaccines contain the DNA from aborted babies. “That’s correct,” said Deisher:

“There is nothing requiring disclosure. On the package insert, which most consumers don’t read, some will state ‘manufactured using human diploid cells’ which are cell lines from an aborted baby. But sometimes that information is coded and not readily understandable to the average consumer.

Sadly, in the United States for vaccines like chicken pox, MMR and others there are no alternatives available that are not tainted with the DNA from voluntarily aborted babies.  There is a list of the tainted vaccines and some of the alternatives that are available at the Children of God for Life website.    http://www.cogforlife.org/

Catholic Teachings

Catholic parents who want to take the moral high ground and not vaccinate their children with tainted vaccines certainly have the right to do so. The Pontifical Academy for Life (PLA) in 2005 told Catholics that they have “a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems.”

But how often do you hear of a Catholic telling their physician they do not intend to vaccinate their children because of the moral problems of vaccines produced with the tissue from voluntarily aborted babies?

The PLA further stated that just because these vaccines are lawful to use does not let a Catholic off the hook either. In fact, we are either passively or actively supporting the original evil act of abortion when we knowingly choose to use these tainted vaccines and do not express our outrage each time:

The lawfulness of the use of these vaccines should not be misinterpreted as a declaration of the lawfulness of their production, marketing and use, but is to be understood as being a passive material cooperation (emphasis added) and, in its mildest and remotest sense, also active material cooperation , morally justified as an “extrema ratio” due to the necessity to provide for the good of one’s children and of the people who come in contact with the children — especially pregnant women. Such cooperation occurs in a context of moral coercion of the conscience of parents, who are forced to choose to act against their conscience or otherwise, to put the health of their children and of the population as a whole at risk. This is an unjust alternative choice, which must be eliminated as soon as possible.

Maybe if more Catholics did express their outrage for having to use vaccines made from the DNA of innocent babies voluntarily aborted by their mothers, then manufacturers would create new vaccines and eliminate this “unjust alternative choice.”

Maybe if more Catholics would refuse vaccination because they do not want to passively or actively support the killing of innocent babies in the womb then we could stop the rise in autism rates.

Ultimately the ends can never justify the means and in this case using the DNA from voluntarily aborted babies to save us from disease needs to end.

Traveling with my newly-confirmed 14-year-old daughter Teresa and her two friends, 12-year-old Rebecca Liffrig and 13-year-old Samantha Pearson has been such a blessing.  I like to move quickly through airports, crowds and lines; people who know me will tell you I am always in a rush.  These young girls were easily up to the task of keeping up with me as we walked as far as ten miles some days across the old cobblestone sidewalks that is make up the places we saw in Italy.  In fact Teresa’s favorite part of the trip was the walking.  “I just loved be able to walk everywhere and see some many different things everywhere we walked, it was amazing that there were churches on one corner, then a fountain, then a museum, you could walk anywhere and find something special,” she told me on the flight home.

Samantha, our friend who is a Baptist, most enjoyed the Vatican itself.  Our beautiful two-bedroom apartment was just outside the walls of the Vatican and each day we walked to St. Peter’s square first.  “I was amazed at all the details inside that Church,” she told me.  “I just couldn’t believe all of what you could see.  I would never get tired of looking at the beauty there.”

The standing joke throughout our adventure when we introduced ourselves was that Samantha was the only non-Catholic in a group of four.  She would pipe up and say, “But I think I am getting close.”  Each day of the trip her forefinger and thumb would get closer and closer together.  And yesterday when she was helping to make an Italian-style dinner for our seminarian friend Bob Shea, we asked how close she was now.  The finger and thumb was pressed together and we all gave out a heartily laugh.

And for Rebecca, “Going inside all those churches.  I never could have imagined that there would have been so many churches with so many things to see inside them.  And seeing the Pope — that was pretty cool too,”

I know too, that their faith lives have been transformed in ways that will affect them for the rest of their lives.  My parents took my two brothers and me on a trip around the world when I was 15-years old.  We were living on Guam at the time — my parents were school teachers for three years on Guam — and we had flown to Japan the summer in 1970.  Over two-and-half months in the summer of 1971 we flew from Guam to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok, Katmandu, Calcutta, New Delhi, Agra, Kashmir, Bombay, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the Sudan, Cairo, all over Greece, Zurich, Amsterdam and back through the U.S. to Hawaii to Guam.  That trip was not a pilgrimage as such, but we certainly were exposed to how the rest of the world lived.  From the eastern influences of places like China to the poverty in India and Nepal to Africa tribesmen to the ancient cultures in Greece — they all left a lasting impression on me.  I know it later influenced my decision to join the Peace Corps after I graduated from college, to help people less fortunate than I.

And had I not joined the Peace Corps I would have never met my eventual bride of nearly 28 years, Patti, and been Dad to ten children.

Final Reflections

The original reason I wanted to go to Italy was to see and pray before the Shroud of Turin.  I have written extensively about that experience, and if you haven’t read about or seen all the pictures and short movies we have posted, please do.

In a few weeks the Shroud will go back away from public view until the year 2035 (unless there is a special opportunity permitted as there was this time).  As noted before, it will never be a requirement of our faith to accept that the Shroud is the true burial cloth of Jesus Christ.  After seeing it four times and spending nearly three hours in front of it last week, we know is there was a linen cloth 2,000 years ago that was used to bury our Lord before he was laid in the tomb.  Science has not been able to replicate this bloodstained shroud precisely or prove that it is not what it is purported to be.

For me the most profound moment came when I sat for my final time before the Shroud during the morning Mass at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin.  This church was built on a site of earlier Catholic churches that date back to the 3^rd century.  Mass has been said here for well over 1800 years.  The Shroud itself arrived in the 16^th century so the future saint, Charles Borremeo, the Archbishop of nearby Milan would not have to make the arduous journey to France where the House of Savoy had the Shroud in a church there to see it.

The Mass that morning was crowded, not packed.  As I said before, you didn’t need a free ticket to attend the morning Mass and be close to the Shroud, you just showed up.  Mass was in Italian and there were about a dozen priests concelebrating.  At the precise moments when the priest lifted up the bread and wine to confect them into the Body and Blood of Christ, my eyes lined up with the Shroud.  There were the bloodstains, there was the crucified body, there was our Creator who suffered, died and was buried for all of us.  Emotionally and spiritually I knew that communion would never, ever be the same for me again.

We are the body of Christ.  There was the body of Christ. Transubstantiated by the Italian priests and physically represented in one of the Church’s most venerated relics.  The choir began to sing angelically as we all went up to receive, with my eyes focused again on the Shroud.  And then, another profound moment; the Eucharistic Procession to the chapel room across the courtyard where Eucharistic Adoration takes places during the Shroud exhibition.

Then the Mass at St. John the Baptist’s was over.  I walked forward to the front pews to kneel and say a rosary and a chaplet of mercy.  Then it was sadly time to leave.  While the rest of the trip to Pisa, Lorenzana, the Vatican and the rest of Rome was spectacular, nothing will compare with the first two days in Turin.  It is a story that I will relive forever.

Upon landing at the airport in Minneapolis/St. Paul and ready to board the final leg to our homes in Bismarck, we met up with our dear friend the Vocations Director for the Diocese of Bismarck, Father Tom Richter.  We were excited to tell him about our time in Rome with his seminarian students and our trip to the Shroud of Turin.  He turned to the girls and said, “I hope you three realize the tremendous gift you have been given.  You probably won’t realize the significance of what you have experienced until you are much older.”

I’ve got one more thing to talk about before I wrap up.  Last Sunday at the North American Pontifical University at the Vatican, we had an opportunity with those same seminarian students there to see the new movie about Archbishop Fulton Sheen.  Look for a review about that movie, how you can request a relic, host a private screening of this movie and be an Apostle in the cause for Archbishop Sheen’s canonization on Catholic Exchange soon.

If anyone is interested I intend to put together a PowerPoint presentation about the Shroud of Turin, including slides and pictures that I gathered while in Turin this trip.  I would be happy to provide it  to you or present it to your Church gatherings anytime. You can contact me through our website, www.RaisingCatholicKids.com

Highlights from the entire trip are posted here, http://gallery.me.com/markarmstrong2#100392

Our pilgrimage is nearing an end, but the pattern that keeps repeating itself from Turin to Pisa to Lorenzana to the Vatican and Rome itself is this:  Italy has wonderful, old, marvelously-decorated Churches that date back to the beginning of Christianity itself.  These Catholic places attract millions of people every year who come to see the priceless works of art from frescoes to sculptures to paintings to bejeweled treasures that have been dug up from other non-Christian cultures and put on display.  And yet when it comes time for the sacraments, the true priceless treasures of the Catholic faith, no one is lining up and pushing their way in to get a seat.

I asked our tour guide for St. Peter’s, Ben Danielson, a second year seminarian student from the North American Pontifical College in Rome has anyone added up the value of all the things contained at St. Peter’s?  He replied, “You know Time Magazine did something on that years ago and basically determined that all the money in the world could not replace what is in here.”

And yet all these wonderful, beautiful treasures stay here on earth when all of us depart for the next life with our fellow saints in heaven.  Yes, we are all called to be saints.  We are all asked to be part of the Church Militant helping those who are in the Church Suffering to get to the Church Triumphant.  And yet it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of militants out there these days.  Maybe militant about who is first in line for the next museum entrance, but not so much about who is in line for confession – if there were lines for confession.

Instead we want to be comfortable.  We want to be happy in this world and seem not at all concerned with the next world.  Wouldn’t we live different lives if we really, truly believed that the treasure we should be building up is the one we can’t see? Well, Christians at one time certainly knew that, as our next stop reminded us.

The Coliseum

Most people have heard of the Coliseum.  Most are aware that early Catholics were martyred here.  It was a gruesome place.  Emperors, seeking the favor of their subjects, offered free tickets to 55,000 people to come watch everything from mock battles on water (when they flooded the Coliseum) to wild beasts from all over the world who would turn helpless victims into human hamburger.  Then there were the poor gladiators fighting to the death with the crowd determining who lived and who died.  Blood and carnage was what the crowd wanted to see, smell and watch.

Looking out over the Coliseum this day I reflected a bit on this after Aldo, our tour guide gave an excellent hour summary of what took place here. It seems that all great societies have a flaw of death in them.  I give a presentation on Our Lady of Guadalupe and talk about how the Aztec Society, while advanced in many ways, was seriously flawed when they allowed human sacrifice from atop their pyramids on an almost incomprehensible scale.  The Romans at the Coliseum were people just like we are today, capable of greatness, but at these “games” they would yell out that a wounded gladiator or Christian be hacked to death. And cheered all the more loudly the more death of fellow human beings they witnessed.  The bloodier, uglier and more brutal the “games” were, so much the better.

The three girls and I reflected that we have a flaw in our society as well.  We allow women to kill the most innocent among us through abortion.  The crowd demands a woman the right to kill her own baby.  Societies that do not correct these flaws are doomed to fall, just as the Aztecs did, just as the Romans did.  Both were wealthy, both had empires that covered the known world at the time, and yet, in the end, it wasn’t enough because they could not protect human life. We should learn from the mistakes of the Romans and the Aztecs, or we will be in ruins one day.

More Stops Along the Way

After touring the famous Palatine Hill, site of Roman emperor palaces, arches, the Forum, and the spot where Julius Caesar was cremated, we wanted to see the place where St. Peter (and some say St. Paul) were held.  It was closed, but we did get to at least pray outside its doors.

From there it was a ten-minute hike to St. John Lateran, the cathedral Church of Rome.  (A lot of people think the cathedral of Rome is St. Peter’s, but it is not.)  St. John Lateran is the oldest and ranks first amongst the four Papal Basilicas of Rome.  I could go on and on about its beauty like the nearly 25 Churches we have visited across Italy during the last 7 days.  We spent time going to confession and then Eucharistic Adoration before heading across the street to one of the most unique sites in all of Rome: The Scala Sancta or Holy Stairs.

These wooden steps are, according to our Church, the actual staircase that once led to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate.  Jesus is said to have walked up and down these stairs several times on the day he died.  St. Helena, the mother to the Roman Emperor Constantine (whose arch near the Coliseum we saw just an hour before) is said to have brought the stairs to Rome in the 4^th century.  In the 16^th century, Pope Sixtus V placed them in the chapel where they are now.  By papal decree, a partial indulgence is given to those who pray and kneel all the way to the top of the staircase.

Our final stop after two days is St. Paul’s Basilica.  This church has the earthly remains of St Paul and if you check out the pictures you will see the chain believed to be used when St. Paul was a prisoner in Rome.  There was an opportunity here to ask for special intentions for Masses said at St. Paul’s.  I wrote down a couple including all the intentions of those reading and asking for prayers at Catholic Exchange.

We stopped by the North American Pontifical College to rendezvous with our friend Bob Shea and pick up some groceries.  The girls, forever grateful for this opportunity, wanted to make Bob an authentic “Italian” dinner.  We had learned a lot over the last few days and the girls put on quite a meal.  Everything from artichokes to freshly grated cheese to a pasta-noodle dish that was out of this world!  And of course nothing would be complete in Italy without a little Chianti and Geletto.

We are busy packing and getting ready for an early flight back to our home in Bismarck, North Dakota tomorrow.  I intend to write a final wrap up after I get chance to interview my fellow pilgrims and see what they thought of traveling over the Italy to see the Shroud of Turin, Pisa, stay with a farm family and then spend four days in the Eternal City.

Until then, thanks for your prayers.  And I will keep you in mine.

For photos of this final day of our pilgrimage click here.

Seeing the grandeur of St. Peter’s, and understanding its rich history and meaning, has opened the hearts of all four of us.  God had a plan on our first full day in Rome that was beyond anything we thought possible.  You will see in the photographs how blue the sky was, how pretty the spring flowers were, and how magnificent the buildings looked, but you won’t understand is how great the people were that we met.  By the way the pictures from our first full day are posted at this link, http://gallery.me.com/markarmstrong2#100367

We arrived early at St. Peter’s and line up to get through security to attend the only Sunday morning Mass that is offered in Latin, the rest of them are in Italian. Stepping inside the largest Church in the world is not something that can be written about.  It must be experienced, as a guide later told us.  He was right.  We walk about ten feet inside one of the 50-foot doorways and just stand there in awe.  To our right is the Pieta, the only statue behind glass because of a crazed individual who attempted to destroy it in 1972.  On both sides are giant cherubims holding holy water for you to bless yourself, something all of us immediately went to do.  I pause and pray and soak up the enormity of it all and suggest that since we need to go the nearly 1,000 feet to the other side of the Church for Mass, we should slowly move across one of the side aisles.

We first come across the incorrupt body of Blessed Pope Innocent XI from 1689, one of several incorrupt bodies at the Vatican.  He was known for his reformation of the Vatican administration and his sensitivity in his dealing with the Jews within the Italian States. We wanted to stay and look more at the marvels all around us, but knew that we also wanted to be close enough to see what was going to take place at Mass, so we moved towards the altar.

Sitting down in the pews, you are looking at an altar of immense proportions. Cast figures of four apostles with a giant empty chair of St. Peter stand beneath the only stained-glass window in St. Peter’s that of a simple dove of the Holy Spirit.  I look to my left after saying the morning offering and see the statue of St. Veronica and learn later this is the very spot where the Veil of Veronica is kept at St. Peter’s.  After just seeing the Shroud of Turin, I am struck by God’s choice of seats for us this day.  When I show my fellow pilgrims where we are sitting they let out an audible gasp.

At last the Latin Mass begins.  The procession includes, by my count at least 53 priests, 9 Bishops and the Cardinal.  The incense burners created clouds of smoke that almost obscure the entire altar and even as far back as we are sitting we can smell its sweet heavenly aroma. The joy of receiving Communion here for the first time is almost like receiving the Sacrament for the first time.

As Mass ends, we quickly make our way back outside to St. Peter’s square where literally hundreds of thousands of people are gathering waiting for Pope Benedict.  Each Sunday, if the Holy Father is at his apartment just above the square, he recites the Angelus with everyone, gives a blessing in several languages and will bless any objects that people bring to the square.  We have brought all the items we have bought in Turin, Pisa and Rome with us to Mass and now are eagerly awaiting, like the hundreds of thousands of others, for the Pope to open up his window.

The Pope holds up both hands and the crowd gives him a hearty cheer.  Leading us in the sign of the cross, with giant big screen TVs that line the outside of  St. Peter’s Square, people can recite the prayers with the Holy Father.  It is a wonderful experience.  So many people from all over the world praying together with the leader of our Church.  I keep thinking, “Whenever two or three are gathered in my name, there is love, there am I”…wow, there must be a lot of love out here on this day.

Crossing the Tiber

We left St. Peter’s Square, knowing that we would be back the following day for a Vatican Museum tour, including seeing the Sistine Chapel and more time inside St. Peter’s.  We crossed the Tiber River that runs through the middle of Rome.  Our first stop was the Pantheon.  Half the front of the building had scaffolding on it, but the inside was as remarkable as expected with its famous “Oculous.” Nearly 2,000 years old it remains still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome.  It was converted to a Catholic Church in the 7^th century and you can attend Mass here.

We decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants that line the plaza in front of the Pantheon.  It was a classic Roman place, with our waiter in a tuxedo and comforting to us, an outside fresco of the Blessed Mother on a building overlooking our table.  After lunch the girls decided it was time to check out the shops on the cobblestone streets towards Trevi Fountain to buy postcards and gifts for friends and relatives back home.

A beautiful sunny day in the springtime brings out the crowds in Rome and it was packed around Trevi.  A fountain has existed here for 2,000 years and in 1629 Pope Urban VIII asked Bernini to sketch out a new one, but both men died before it could be completed.  It took Pope Clement XII in 1730, through a contest, to get a new fountain going again.  He also died before it could be built, but finally it was finished by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762.  It is stunning, 85 feet long and 65 feet tall with marbles statues and water gushing out all over into a giant pool; it is the largest Baroque fountain in the world.  And a traditional legend holds that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you are ensured a return trip to Rome, so of course, even though we are on a Catholic pilgrimage, we comply with this pagan custom, knowing it will no effect on whether we return or not!  I read in one of the tour guides that an estimated 3,000 Eroes (that’s almost $5,000) is thrown into the fountain each day.  The money is fished out by the city and used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome’s poor.

A few more winding blocks and we are at the base of the Spanish Steps, the longest and widest staircase in Europe.  Beautiful flowers are in bloom in planters that line the steps and people are packed sitting on the steps as they chat and enjoy the view.  The stairway of 138 steps was built in the early 1700’s and links the plaza below to the French Catholic Church Trinità dei Monti or Holy Trinity on the Hill.  Built in the 17^th and 18^th centuries there are beautiful frescoes and marble statues in here as well.  We pause for a time to pray and give thanks for all that God has done for us.  When I ask the girls what they think of everything they have seen, they are overwhelmed.  Coming from a place like North Dakota, to see so many ancient wonderful works of art, churches and so many people speaking languages from all over the world, it is hard to take it all in. “I could have never imagined anything like this at all Mr. Armstrong,” said the always polite 12-year old Rebecca Liffrig.  Her interest in joining a religious order has only been strengthened this trip, for sure.

We make our way back, nearly as we came, stopping for some gellato, that famous fruity Italian ice cream that is available on nearly every street corner.  We are set to meet with our seminarian friend Bob Shea at the Pontifical North American College where we will be watching a private screening of the new Archbishop Fulton Sheen movie.

About a week ago Mary Kochan forwarded me an email from Lisa Wheeler who is doing publicity for this new film.  The email was asking for seminarians or other Catholics who might want to attend a screening of this movie in Rome.  I instantly emailed Lisa and explained that I was going to be in Rome that very day with my fellow pilgrims and asked if we could attend.  She readily agreed and so we attended this event at the College.

I will write more about this movie and how you can get a copy for your parish to screen in a future Catholic Exchange article, but for now let me tell you that it was wonderful to be in Rome with so many young men studying to be priests from all over America watching a movie about the life of Archbishop Sheen.

We concluded the evening by climbing to a rooftop terrace at that overlooks the Vatican and the rest of Rome from the college.  The nighttime lights of the dome of St. Peter provided a perfect backdrop for conversations and stories about our faith.  Such energy in these young men, such zeal, such passion.  I don’t think any of us wanted the night to end, including the three girls who had walked over 10 miles and had gone to Mass at St. Peter’s, prayed with the Pope, saw several more ancient churches, tossed coins into Trevi Fountain, and now were talking about their faith with young men only a few years older than they who will ordained in the next year or two.

Tomorrow we go back inside the walls of the Vatican to spend time in the world’s largest museum, see the Sistine Chapel, art works by Raphael, and learn more about our faith.  Ever since we have touched down in Italy, nearly a week ago, we have been given a gift to enrich our faith beyond our wildest dreams.  We will continue the journey and report back to our Catholic Exchange readers tomorrow.

Seeing Assisi is striking for the first time as our GPS unit routes us through a back country road. The view is spectacular. (See photos from today’s story at this link, http://gallery.me.com/markarmstrong2/100363 )

We park next to the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in a massive underground parking garage named after Pope John Paul II.  My three fellow pilgrims, including my newly-confirmed daughter Teresa, and her two friends Samantha and Rebecca find it rather amusing that such a great Pope had this named after him.

We reached the great Basilica by hiking up beautiful cobblestone streets lined with shops selling everything from rosaries to prayer cards and lunch items to toy figurines of St. Francis.  Knowing our time was short we quickly decided to purchase a 15-minute guided tour that would take us up the scaffolding to the very top of the Church to see the restoration work being done on frescoes that date back centuries.

With an hour before that tour began we went inside the massive Upper Church and found a Franciscan monk there offering pilgrims a chance for a mass to be said for them.  I struck up a conversation with Brother Sebastian and learned he was the youngest of 9 children.  He was delighted to know that we had 10 children and Rebecca comes from a family of 9 as well.  Interestingly he had a prayer card of Our Lady of Guadalupe that he had next to him.  We talked briefly about her importance and said he was deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother.  Explaining that I was writing articles about our pilgrimage to Italy, we exchanged email addresses to keep in touch.  I asked him to say a Mass for all the intentions of our families and those reading this on Catholic Exchange.

When our time arrived to climb the scaffolding to see the frescoes up close it was amazing to realize the detailed work that these artisans put into their paintings especially when you realized that no one could ever see it.  From the bottom of the church floor to the top reaches of the ceiling, minute details in the frescoes, with deep spiritual symbolism and meaning, could only be seen by those who created it, or as our guide said, “the eyes of God or the angels themselves.”

Climbing down, we entered underneath the Basilica to see the tomb of St. Francis.  Remarkably Francis only lived for 44 years.  He was canonized in 1228, just two years after his death, and the foundation stone for the church was laid by Pope Gregory IX himself in 1228.  Two years later, and four years after his death the uncorrupted body of St. Francis was brought in a solemn procession to a temporary resting place while the church was finished. In 1230 St. Francis was finally laid to rest.  We all spent some silent time in prayer, repeating the St. Francis Prayer.  It is such a beautiful prayer and little did any of us even imagine three weeks ago we would be kneeling and praying it here at Assisi.

Sadly our time to leave and head for Rome had come.  The 90-minute drive is simple today over high speed highways.  Nearly 800 years ago, Francis made to journey to Rome on foot and we can only imagine the hardship such a journey of over 100 miles would have entailed for him.

Arriving in Rome was like seeing a movie.  We kept seeing the sights we hope to spend more time at over the next few days.  We met our friend Bob Shea at the apartment we are renting.  Bob will be a deacon next year, and then ordained to the priesthood the following year.  It’s the second vocation is his family; his older brother, Father James Shea is president of the Catholic University of Mary, the youngest college president in the country.

Our apartment is located right outside the Vatican walls and Bob takes us on a walk to St. Peter’s square.  We see it in its evening splendor and find a place to eat a few blocks away outside in the moonlit sky.  We will back Sunday morning for Mass and Pope Benedict’s balcony prayers and blessings.  We have plans to see and experience even more of Rome and its Catholic sights and sounds through Tuesday.

Spending these last few days in Turin, Pisa, Lorenzana, Assisi and now Rome gives a Catholic an understanding of the richness of their faith.  Whether it is the latest scandal, the lack of Catholics receiving the sacraments, or being disobedient to Church teachings, you can sometimes feel like things are not going well for the Church.  But in reality, throughout the course of its history, there have always been good times and bad times.  St. Francis lived only 44 years and look how he changed, through the grace of God, the entire Catholic community.  Or John Pail II; who would have guessed that a young man that wanted to be an actor, caught in Nazi-occupied and then Communist-controlled Poland would one day become one of our greatest Popes?

If we all choose to follow what God is calling us to be, we will all become God’s instruments and the world will be like heaven on earth. What has been heaven for me this trip is seeing these young girls ages 12-14 learn more and more about the Catholic faith (especially since Samantha is Baptist!).  Rebecca told us at dinner tonight that she wants to become a nun, “not one of those who dress ordinary, but one who wears a habit.”  And my daughter Teresa at Assisi caught sight of several nuns and instantly asked to have her picture taken with them in front of the Basilica.  I know God has a plan for these girls, and that the fruits of this trip will all come if we continue to nurture them on the way.

Attending this Mass gives one a sense of wonderment when you stop and think about where this linen cloth has purported to be these last 20 centuries.  How many people have stood before this bloodstained, ancient cloth and received the body and blood of Christ during Mass and then reflected upon what Christ did for us by dying on the Cross.  His last moments before passing into His eternal reward are mysteriously etched onto the Shroud.

After Mass concludes each day, before the crowds are let in and given their three minutes in front of the Shroud, a Eucharistic procession takes place.  The body of Christ is taken from the Cathedral to a special chapel next door where yesterday we went to confession and prayed in adoration.  For one more month this solemn, ancient and spiritually enriching experience is available to anyone who has the desire and the means to come to Turin.  The Holy Father Benedict XVI will be there on May 2^nd and the Shroud goes back into safe keeping, away from public view until the year 2035 on May 23^rd.

After Mass I ventured up to the nearest pews and prayed a final rosary and chaplet of Mercy for all the intentions of my family, friends and everyone who I am praying for through Catholic Exchange.  It was with a heavy heart that I lifted myself off my knees to walk out of the Cathedral, knowing that I will never again see the “image not made by human hands” in my lifetime on earth.  During my three days in Turin and my nearly three hours in front of the Shroud during four separate trips, I came to realize how much God has done for me, for all of us really, by suffering the way he did on the cross.  The horrible wounds that are clearly visible on the linen cloth are a doorway for us, if we want to venture inside.

Leaving Turin for Pisa

I picked up our rental car, it is a FIAT, which is made in Turin.  We packed our bags and the three girls and I had for the western coast of Italy.  We drive down the mountainside through literally scores of tunnels and bridges with look out the window to see beautiful villas, olive groves and churches as backdrops.  We zip through Genoa, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and decide to stop a little further south on a beach in a resort town called Massa.  It is sprinkling today, but since we are landlubbers from North Dakota, we make the best of it and put our feet in the saltwater sea and feel the wet sand briefly on our bare feet.  We hop in the FIAT and 45 minutes later we are before the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.

What most people know is the leaning Tower of Pisa, well, leans.  What most don’t know is the remarkable history of Pisa itself (it rivaled Rome for a time), the Cathedral adjacent to the tower, the giant Duomo and the other remarkable Catholic buildings.

We quickly get on the first tour to the top of the Leaning Tower and, despite the rainy weather, the view is spectacular.  Built in 1173, it has survived over 800 years despite its almost immediate problem and subsequent efforts to stabilize the lean over the years.  In the 1990s efforts to ensure its longevity paid off, at least for now.

A church has also existed on this site since 313 AD, but the current St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral was built in 1064.  And when you walk inside, like every Italian Church we visited in Turin, your breath is immediately taken away.  I could write an entire booklet about what I learned in the hour spent inside, but the two things that amazed me was St. Ranieri and an icon of the Madonna.

St. Ranieri lived in the 12^th century and was proclaimed a saint about 100 years after his death.  His relics, including some of his visible body parts are housed for all to see in a chapel that was built in the 16^th century.  You can see a picture of this in the links provided in this article.

The other even more remarkable painting is the “Virgin with Child” traditional icon that hangs in the front left of the Cathedral.  The painting was originally in a castle and carried to the Cathedral in 1226 AD.  It is a beautiful work of art and wasn’t even seen by the public for nearly 550 years because it was always wrapped in veils, which were never lifted, not even when it was carried in processions through the streets of Pisa.  Only when the Grand Duke Leopold asked that she be “made visible” did the veil come off and she take her rightful place in the Cathedral where she is today.  There is also a picture of this linked to the article as well.

Departing Pisa we made our way through the Tuscany hillside country to stay at a farmhouse that rents rooms to visitors.  Our host, Julcy, speaks English and we talk about the remarkable spiritual experiences we have had on the trip.  Julcy is surprised by my daughter Teresa’s faith and her friend Rebecca and Samantha wanting to see Catholic places.  She learns I have 10  children and says she has only one 10-year old daughter.  “She made her first Communion last year and now she says that doesn’t want to go to Church anymore, we don’t make her,” Julcy admits.

Julcy says that is the way it is in Italy today, lots of wonderful, beautiful Churches, but they are more like museums.  The people don’t go to Mass, and worse yet, they are not practicing their faith or handing it down to their children.  “It is true when you get rich, you don’t think you need God.  In Italy we say God is for the poor people,” Julcy tells me.

We are leaving tomorrow for Rome, where we will be staying right outside the Vatican Walls.  We have four days to see and do as much as we can.  None of us believe that God is for just poor people, in fact we pilgrims believe we would be poor without Him.

Click here for pictures of this amazing day.

It was the start of a  day in which we managed to briefly tour 8 churches, most built between 1600 and 1800.  Each one of them had remarkable life-like statues, beautiful large paintings, stained glass windows and marble columns — all of them left us with a sense of wonderment.  We could have easily spent an entire morning or afternoon contemplating the imagery contained in each of them.  Each time we one we felt empty when all we could do was say either a rosary, a chaplet of mercy or other prayers before leaving their spacious spiritual interiors, knowing that 15 or 20 minutes was about all the time we could devote to them.

Sadly though, except for where the Shroud of Turin was being venerated, all the churches we entered were mostly empty, except for an occasional elderly man or woman kneeling in solemn prayer.  This is representative of Italy, where only 8 percent attend Sunday Mass services. It’s not that there weren’t crowds in Turin.  They were there to be sure, in the hundreds of shops that line the plazas and streets that is the rest of Turin.

Following Mass we made our way to the Shroud Museum.  Inside were remarkable photos, paintings and depictions of where the Shroud is believed to have been through the last 20 centuries. For those who wonder if the Shroud is a medieval forgery, there are plenty of scientific and contemporary records through the centuries to show that it Shroud has indeed existed since the time of the burial of Christ.

The scientific debate really began in 1898.  And in the museum is the giant camera that Italian Secondo Pia used first to take a picture of it. That photograph demonstrated that the bloodstained image on the linen cloth was reversed, as in a photographic negative.  It would begin the scientific inquiry into the Shroud that carries on to this day.

This museum also contained replicas of what the nails, the Roman whips that scourged Jesus and His crown of thorns (really a cap of thorns) would have looked like.  In addition there was the silver case that the Shroud was held in when not on display in the Cathedral.  This was the silver box that firefighters are seen carry from the Church when fire broke out mysteriously in 1998, nearly again destroying the Shroud.  Three times, first in 1532, fire has broken out in Churches that housed the Shroud, and three times it was saved.

After a brief lunch we walked the few blocks to get in line to see the Shroud again.  Unlike the evening before, there were many more people in line at midday.  We walked ahead of hundreds trying to find someone who spoke English to converse with, wanting to ask  some questions for this article about where they were from and their reason for wanting to see the Shroud.  But everyone was Italian, a lot of them groups of school children, and their English skills were like my Italian skills — not very good!

And just like the evening before, we were ushered into the darkened Cathedral of St. John the Baptist to be given a chance to stand six feet from the “image not made by human hands.”  Again we spoke afterwards about how intense those three minutes feel.  You want to pray and do, you want to focus on the image and do, you want to listen to a prayer that is said in Italian and try to understand and cannot.  And then those three minutes are over and you are quietly asked to leave the sanctuary.  You are glad you came but the time is so short.

Outside the Cathedral there is Eucharistic Adoration and confession being heard.  We are happy to learn that for the three of us that are Catholic, we can receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation because there are priests who speak English. Father Alberto hears my confession after my daughter Teresa sees him.  We talk for a bit afterwards and he tells me he is from Turin and feels blessed to be offering this Sacrament to the pilgrims that come from around the world here. “I like helping people that are on the Way.  It is a tremendous blessing,” said Father Alberto.

We spend time then — even Samantha, our Baptist pilgrim — before the exposed Blessed Sacrament in silence.  And then decide to visit the Turin Diocesan Museum located underneath the Cathedral.  It is a choice that the teenage girls fight me on a bit, because we have already seen the Shroud museum and they “strongly” feel that they want to wander around more and perhaps do some shopping for presents to take home to family and friends.  I insist on seeing this museum.  And like all things, God is guiding us this trip and He has a happy surprise for us following our museum tour.

The Turin Diocesan Museum contains samples of the architecture, art, and archeology of the Cathedral that dates back through the last 18 centuries.  We learn that the Cathedral was founded during the very earliest Christian times and built next to the existing Roman walls at the side of a theater, the ruins of which are still visible under the massive Cathedral.  Beautiful large paintings from the 15^th through 17^th century that once adorned an earlier Cathedral now hang on the walls in the basement.  Also you can see ornate ancient vestment, chalices, statues, crosses, giant candle holders and gem-laden gold and silver monstrances and even elaborate ancient tabernacles.  Again we are awestruck at the beauty and craftsmanship of everything we see.

At the end of the tour we come out of the Cathedral basement and are led back to the front steps.  Behind us is the very line of people waiting to get into see the Shroud.  The doors to Cathedral are open and people are walking inside to the main body of the Church, so we look at each other and follow them inside.

I had wondered about the people behind us in the pews in the main body of the Church who were kneeling and praying when we came down the side aisle and had our three minutes in front of the Shroud earlier in the day and the evening before.  I thought you needed special permission, or had a special pass.  Turns out you don’t need anything at all.  While you are not six or ten feet away from the Shroud, you still have a wonderful view and can be as close as 25 feet.

And so my daughter Teresa and her friends Rebecca and Samantha found out that by going to the Diocesan Museum, somewhat against their will, they were able to sit, kneel and even stand for well over a half hour and venerate this mysterious Shroud.  We could watch the comings and goings of thousands of pilgrims, like we had been, and listen to that beautiful Italian prayer over and over again said so reverently each time. We prayed rosaries, said Chaplets of Mercy and just sat in silence, knowing what a special 30 minutes we all were having together.

As we left we found out that Mass was said there at 7 a.m., and so we will be back tomorrow morning.  As we strolled back to our B and B we went inside more sacred places: the Church of St. Rocky (who knew there was even a St. Rocky?), the Church pf St. Francis of Assisi (with a beautiful statue of St. Padre Pio next to him), and the Church of St. Thomas.  We would have walked inside more, because we walked past more, but the hour was getting late and we needed to find a place to nourish our stomachs too!

Tomorrow, as I said, we will go back one last time for Mass in front of the Shroud.  Then we will say goodbye to Turin sadly.  The weather has been sunny and in the 70’s, but tomorrow’s forecast calls for some showers and cooler temperatures as we take a rental car and head down the west coast of Italy through Genoa to Pisa and then to stay on a farm that rents out rooms to travelers in the Tuscany hill country.

This has been one of the most sacred days of our lives.  I continue to pray for so many people and causes at each church we stop at, including those of you who faithfully read and support Catholic Exchange.  Please keep our small group of pilgrims on the way to Rome now in your prayers as well.