Pam McCue viewed a Shroud of Turin exhibit in Jerusalem in 2015.
During her stay in the Holy Land, she returned to that exhibit. Twice.
“I think it was God drawing me in,” McCue said. “I’m glad I have hands and feet to share it now.”
A 2005 convert to Catholicism who lives in northern Alabama, McCue learned more about the shroud and soon developed her own exhibit, showing it at schools and churches in her area.
In January 2024, she purchased a large exhibit from Othonia –– an international organization that produced the display McCue first saw in Jerusalem. Associated with the Institute of Science and Faith at Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, Othonia’s mission is educating people about the shroud.
One of McCue’s stops for the exhibit is St. Therese in Deephaven for an April 5-12 showing titled “Who is the Man of the Shroud?” It will be McCue’s only stop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. This same exhibit was viewed by thousands of people at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis last summer.
The display offers a life-size, museum-quality replica of the Shroud of Turin made through a high-resolution photograph on cotton canvas. Twenty-four panels help tell the story of the shroud, along with a bronze, shroud-based statue of Christ and replicas of weapons consistent with both history and the shroud, including a crown of thorns and Roman nails, a scourge or whip, and a lance tip.
Presenters will include Legionaries of Christ Father Andrew Dalton, a theology professor at the pontifical university in Rome, an Othonia board member and the developer of a postgraduate certificate in Shroud Studies. As part of that program, he teaches a course titled The Biblical Theology of the Passion of the Christ.
Father Leonard Andrie, pastor of St. Therese, said he contacted McCue after learning about the shroud in talks and documentaries over the years, and particularly after hearing about the positive reception of her exhibit at the Eucharistic Congress.
“Sometimes it is a divine inspiration,” Father Andrie said about pursuing the exhibit. “I felt like the Lord was trying to reach out to me.”
Housed since 1578 A.D. in the Cathedral of St. John in Turin, Italy, the shroud is a 14-foot-by-4-foot linen cloth that features a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing the wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death.
The Catholic Church has never ruled on the shroud’s authenticity, saying judgments about its age and origin belonged to scientific investigation. Scientists have debated its authenticity for decades, and studies have led to conflicting results.
“Part of what I love is the mystery,” Father Andrie said. “It defies being able to explain it.”
God often works through mystery, said Father Andrie, who came close to the shroud at the cathedral in Turin in 2013 –– he saw its casing. For visitors to the exhibit at St. Therese, God might well work in tailored grace, Father Andrie said. “These things will touch them in a unique way. God knows what will touch them.”
The display will be in a large community room at the parish, which will be open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day of the exhibit, with McCue or someone on her team present throughout the day. Father Dalton’s presentations will be April 7 at 10 a.m. until noon and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Priests and deacons across the archdiocese are invited to a special showing 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 8.
A small gift shop will offer shroud-related literature, jewelry, rosaries and other items. “Something that people can take away with them to keep it fresh in their minds,” said Maria Snyder, community life coordinator at St. Therese and an organizer of McCue’s visit to the parish.
Among those anticipating the exhibit is Mark Huschke, 62, a St. Therese parishioner who developed his own talks about the shroud, drawn to it by his interest in the intersection of faith and science. Huschke spoke to parishioners about the shroud at Father Andrie’s invitation in 2021.
“I was part of the planning” for the upcoming exhibit, Huschke said. “I’m super excited. This exhibit is the same as at the National Eucharistic Congress. I’ve heard amazing things about it.”
McCue said the shroud offers a door to belief in Christ.
“It’s not that I have faith in the shroud,” she said. “I have faith in Jesus. But that visual you get with the shroud, especially the visual of the face, that draws you in.”
The shroud has offered her opportunities to share the reality of Jesus Christ, McCue said. “It has given me a way to share Jesus. It has increased my evangelization of Jesus.”
In October 2023, Father Andrie was instrumental in bringing the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and those of her parents, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, to his parish, with stops across the archdiocese. Relics and the shroud can help strengthen and enliven the faith, Father Andrie said.
“Both are touchpoints with heaven,” he said.
SHROUD EXHIBITS
Various exhibits about the Shroud of Turin are offered by the faithful across the globe.
For example, author, journalist and researcher William West, an expert on the shroud’s authenticity, addressed an audience at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Sydney, Australia, March 3, in advance of an Australian Holy Shroud Conference to be held in June.
In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, a March 15-16 photographic exhibit and presentation was offered at Guardian Angels in Oakdale by Tony Cherniawski, whose Holy Face of Jesus Project raises money to have images of the Shroud of Turin replicated on billboards across Michigan.
Father Joe Connelly, pastor of Guardian Angels, said he believes the Shroud of Turin is authentic. “If it’s not, my faith won’t be shaken,” he said. “But that mystery of it does leave room for trust as well. Faith is given to us; it’s not something we can grasp or seize.”
Pam McCue’s exhibit at St. Therese in Deephaven April 5-12 is part of what has become a national tour since the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis last summer. McCue was in Brainerd March 19 and has made stops in Texas and Washington, D.C. Lenten plans include exhibits in Ohio, Louisiana and Tennessee. Later this year the exhibit will be in Pennsylvania and Missouri. In addition, there are now three more Othonia mobile exhibits, McCue said, with one based in Las Vegas and two in Dallas.
