Pope Benedict XVI: The Icon of Holy Saturday (2010)

By Pope Benedict XVI, The Catholic Thing, Posted April 3, 2021

Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, was elected to the papacy on April 19, 2005. Since his resignation became effective on February 28, 2013, he has been Pope Emeritus.

From Pope Benedict’s 2010 address during his pastoral visit to the Shroud of Turin.

Dear Friends: This is a moment to which I have been looking forward. I have stood before the Holy Shroud on various occasions but this time I am experiencing this Pilgrimage and this moment with special intensity: perhaps this is because the passing years make me even more sensitive to the message of this extraordinary Icon; perhaps and I would say above all this is because I am here now as the Successor of Peter, and I carry in my heart the whole Church, indeed, the whole of humanity.

One could say that the Shroud is the Icon of this mystery, the Icon of Holy Saturday. Indeed it is a winding-sheet that was wrapped around the body of a man who was crucified, corresponding in every way to what the Gospels tell us of Jesus. …

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