The Science and Faith Institute of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, in collaboration with Othonia, the International Center of Study on the Shroud in Turin and the Giulio Ricci Diocesan Center of Sindonology of Rome is offering for the eighth consecutive year a Postgraduate Certificate in Shroud Studies.

This program, which covers a wide range of topics, is for clergy, laity, professors, researchers, journalists, and anyone else who may want to gain a deeper understanding of Shroud studies, using an interdisciplinary approach. The duration of the program is two semesters long.

Director of the project is father Rafael Pascual, LC. The Scientific Committee is formed by Nello Balossino, Bruno Barberis, Gianfranco Berbenni, Antonio Cassanelli, Andrew Dalton, Rafael Pascual, Gian Maria Zaccone.

Teachers and Lecturers in the different courses are Nello Balossino, Bruno Barberis, Andrew Dalton, Paolo Di Lazzaro, Roberto Falcinelli, Giuseppe Ghiberti, Ada Grossi, Kelly Kearse, Flavia Manservigi, Alfonso Muñoz-Cobo, Rafael Pascual, Alfonso Sánchez Hermosilla, Marco Riani, Luigi Rodella, Alfonso Sánchez Hermosilla, Barrie Schwortz, Enrico Simonato, Joseph Spence.

An eloquent message of love

This program offers a systematic approach to the intellectual challenges posed by the Shroud of Turin, as well as the opportunity to go deeper into the message that it proposes to the faith and to the heart of believers. As Pope Francis told in the video message for the extraordinary exposition of the Shroud of Turin on March 30, 2013: “We do not simply observe; we venerate. Ours is a prayerful gaze. I would say more: it is letting yourself to be gazed upon. This face has closed eyes; it is the face of one who is deceased. Yet, mysteriously, he looks at us, and, in the silence, he speaks to us. How is it possible? Why do people of faith, like you, want to pause before this icon of a man scourged and crucified? Because the Man of the Shroud invites us to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth. This image—impressed on the cloth—speaks to our heart and urges us to climb the Mount of Calvary, to look at the wood of the Cross, to immerse ourselves in the eloquent silence of love.”

Postgraduate Certificate in Shroud Studies 2019-2020