Shroud update.

Toronto -- At the same time as our two articles on the Shroud of Turin appeared in the February issue of Catholic Insight, writers at two of Canada's leading newspapers tackled (in print) the mystery of the famous cloth.

On the occasion of the Olympics in Turin, John Moore, a travel writer at the Toronto Star, presented the more balanced of the two accounts in "Shrouded in controversy," his January 12 article. He noted that while some say the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, others claim it is a medieval counterfeit. He went on to provide a history of the Shroud to the point where Pope John Paul II decreed it should remain in the Italian city of Turin. He concluded by quoting a volunteer guide at the museum in which the Shroud is housed, who said, "It's really a question of faith. You either believe or you don't believe."

Joseph Brean's February 16 National Post article, "Their Shroud is our inukshuk," was less balanced. He claimed that the Shroud "can be traced to the 14th century, but no earlier" and suggested it has a "murky" history that relies "more on faith than fact." Catholic Insight has sent copies of our two February articles to Messrs. Moore and Brean.