Father John Rossi and others examine a replica of the Shroud of Turin at St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church in Cherry Hill.
Nearly 200 parishioners of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Sicklerville journeyed with Father John Rossi last month to St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church in Cherry Hill for a Lenten pilgrimage, where they viewed one of the nine official replicas in the world of the Shroud of Turin.
The shroud, believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus, bears the image of an apparently crucified man. The life-sized, textural replica was pressed to the actual Shroud in Italy and gifted by the Vatican to the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.
Throughout the Lenten season, the sacred image is traveling to various Ukrainian Catholic parishes for the education and veneration of the faithful.
Father Paul Makar, pastor of St. Michael’s and classmate of Father Rossi at The Catholic University of America, Washington, welcomed the pilgrims and explained how the Shroud reveals Christ’s wounds along with details of ancient Jewish burial customs.
The group also learned about some of the liturgical traditions of the Eastern Church and the importance of iconography. Father Rossi then spoke to the group about the significance of making pilgrimages and the spiritual impact of such journeys, saying, “We leave here today forever changed, our life moves forward in a new direction, we go back to our homes, schools and workplaces with a deeper realization of what Christ actually did for love of us.”