Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Card Oswald Gracias, who is visiting Turin to admire the Shroud, prayed for the Church of India. “I asked God that His suffering bring peace to the whole country and the Archdiocese of Bombay, and that the Gospel be announced in every corner of our earth.”
Upon invitation of Indian Card Ivan Dias, Card Dias changed his schedule. The archbishop of Mumbai decided to visit the 18th showing of the Shroud of Turin. “We were just two metres away,” the president of the Bishops’ Conference of India. “It was a profound and intense spiritual experience.”
Mgr Severino Poletto, cardinal of Turin, gave the two Indian prelates a bronze metal, made for the visit of the Holy Father, with the face of Jesus stamped on the Shroud.
Card Gracias prayed “before the most precious relic we have” so that “through the passion of Christ, the Church in India, in such times of difficulties and persecution, can continue to bear witness to the Gospel”.
