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Dioceses, Parishes and Association More than forty dioceses organized pilgrimages to the Shroud from April 19 to June 14. About thirty of them were Italian, the others European. The largest group of pilgrims (4200 people) came from Vercelli on June 12, guided by Archbishop Enrico Masserani. Then the dioceses of Asti (April 30), Cesena (May 2) and Ivrea (May 9) gathered about three thousand people. The majority of foreign pilgrims came from France. The group from Chambery was the last one, they arrived on June 13, guided by archbishop Calude Feidt. Among the other European dioceses we find Lugano with more than five hundred people and Spalato with about a hundred. Usually the pilgrims were led by the city’s archbishops: Cardinal Giacomo Biffi brought fifteen hundred people from Bologna on May 9, monsignor Fernando Charrier came from Alessandria with twenty-seven hundred people on May 13, Cardinal Michele Giordano came with five hundred people from Naples on June 6, monsignor Luigi Bettazzi brought a group of three thousand people frome Ivrea on June 9. Pilgrims came from all the twenty-six vicarial zone of Torino: the largest groups came from Rivoli and Lingotto-Mirafiori sud (fourteen hundred people each), Milano-Rebaudengo with a thousand people and Settimo with eight hundred. About thirty associations and movements organized pilgrimages to the Shroud. Azione Cattolica gathered five thousand children, teenagers and young adults from many parts of Italy. They were hosted by forty Turin parishes. The Comunitè dell’Emmanuele brought a group of twenty-four hundred people, Polisportive Salesiane fifteen hundred, Comunione e Liberazione fourteen hundred, and the Piedmontese boys and girls scout groups about a thousand. On June 7 about a thousand teenagers celebrated "Sindon Day", the event was organized by the catechists’ meeting center "didaskaleion".
On Friday March 8, in the afternoon, forty five hundred Piedmontese soldiers came to visit the Shroud. On June 6 it was the time of a hundred and fifty cadets of the Bergamo’s Guardia di Finanza Academy and two hundred dames and knights of the Royal House of Savoia’s dinastic orders, from Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta. From March 8 to June 6 two thousand members of the Holy Sepulcher’s equestrian division went to venerate the Shroud in four different groups. They were clearly recognizable by their white cape with a red cross in the middle. Caritas’ Service for the Immigrants promoted many visits for the foreigners who live in Torino. A pilgrimage was organized on May 15 for two hundred Sinti and Rom nomads. We would also like to mention, among the foreign pilgrims, a group of two hundred Lebanese Christians (May 4) and about thirty Muslim Turkish managers of an Istanbul company, who were in Torino for a business training course.
Ufficio Stampa Comitato per
l’Ostensione della Sindone.
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