For years The Vatican, tiptoeing carefully, has never claimed that the 14-foot linen cloth was, as some believers claim, used to cover Christ after he was taken from the cross 2,000 years ago. Pope Francis, in line with edicts issued by previous pontiffs, calls the cloth an icon rather than a relic and symbolizes the cruelty of man against man,
I have published a novel “The Shroud” set in modern times in which the Shroud mysteriously disappears from its. vault only to reappear in a remote Italian church—but mutilated. Several segments purportedly containing blood stains have been cut out.By whom and for what purpose? The mystery is pursued and eventually solved by an Interpol detective at a risk to his life.