A photo-exhibition of the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be the linen cloth that wrapped the body of Jesus following his crucifixion, was held March 2-16 at the Kojimachi Church in Tokyo. The exhibition showed more than 40 items, including the most recent life-size photo of the shroud.

The linen, woven in herringbone twill, and measuring 4.415 x 1.137 meter, looks similar to a sepia-colored photographic negative and shows front and back views of a man 180 cm tall. The image shows some 120 leather-whip wounds over the body, thorn punctures around the forehead and scalp, and bloodstains on a wrist, the abdomen and both feet.

The shroud, now in the possession of the Vatican, is usually kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. Salesian Fr. Gaetano Compri, who has researched the Holy Shroud for 58 years, explained the exhibition, saying, «As Lent is a time for meditating on the passion and death of Jesus Christ, I hoped that the Shroud would help strengthen our faith in Him.» Fr. Compri delivered a talk and slide presentation almost every day at the exhibition hall.

Comparing the Scriptural texts of the Gospels and the man of the Shroud, he invited visitors to a meditation on Jesus’ passion and resurrection. He asserted that the shroud shows no sign of decay of its raw material. Each session drew over 40 people, and occasionally increased to 100.

There were some who, interested in Christianity, picked up Catholic publications. Debate on who the man of the Shroud is has continued since the 19th century. Paul de Gail, a French mathematician, declared that, having examined all the data and information gained from the shroud, the probability of the ‘man of the Shroud’ not being Jesus was only one in 25 billion.