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| Archbishop Bruno Forte (photo by Paul Badde/CNA) |
Chieti, Italy, Aug 6, 2016 / 02:05 pm (CNA) Ten years ago, Benedict XVI visited the Shrine
of the Holy Face in Manoppello, which houses an image of the face of Christ
which some believe to be the Veil of Veronica.
“Seeking the Face of Jesus must be the longing
of all of us Christians; indeed, we are 'the generation' which seeks his Face
in our day, the Face of the 'God of Jacob',” Benedict said during his Sept. 1,
2006 pilgrimage to the shrine. “If we persevere in our quest for the Face of
the Lord, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, he, Jesus, will be our eternal
joy, our reward and glory for ever.”
During that pilgrimage Benedict was the first
Pope in more than 400 years to kneel in veneration before the Manoppello Image
which is kept in the shrine, located about 12 miles southwest of Chieti in
Italy's Abruzzo region.
After his visit to Manoppello, the talk of the
human face of God in Christ became a kind of trademark of Benedict's pontificate.
In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of
the event, Paul Badde asked Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto about his
memories of the day.
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| Pope Benedict XVI before the Holy Face of Manoppello. At his side is Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, OFM, Cap., Rector of the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello |
Badde:
Your Grace, ten years ago, Pope Benedict XVI visited the holy veil, which is
called the “Volto Santo” in Manoppello and was long known as the “Veil of
Veronica”, on your invitation as the first Pope in over 400 years to visit. You
stood one meter away from the Holy Father on this historic encounter. What was
going through your mind during those moments?
Archbishop Bruno Forte: In those moments, my eyes were going back and forth between the
venerated image and the face of the Successor of Peter, who contemplated it
intensely as if to be captured by the image and at the same time challenged to
enter into that which this veil suggests – with that extraordinary mystical and
inquiring intelligence that characterized the whole work of Joseph Ratzinger
and Benedict XVI. It was like attending a dialogue in which silence was more
eloquent than each word: a silence from the surplus, touching and being touched
on the threshold of mystery from whose depths allows itself to be illuminated.
Badde: “The
Pope was ‚begeistert’” (delighted)! as you said in German right after the
Pope’s visit. Can you remember more today the immediate reaction of Benedict
XVI on this “face-to- face” encounter?
Archbishop Forte: Of
course. The enthusiasm of the Pope seemed to me to be like what the Greek term
“Enthousiasmós” means in the original sense of the word: “en theó ousía” – as
an “act of being in God.”
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| Pope Benedict XVI in Manoppello September 1, 2006 |
Badde: You
said in 2006 that there is a “moral certitude” that the image of Manoppello is
identical with which the Evangelist John mentioned as “soudarion” from Christ’s
empty tomb in Jerusalem. What did you mean?
Archbishop Forte: John
names it in verses 6 and 7 in the 20th chapter of his Gospel: “When Simon Peter
arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and
the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up
in a separate place.” The burial cloths – in the original “tá
othónia” – correspond in all likelihood with that unique witness that we have
in the famous Shroud of Turin (or Santa Sindone in Italian). The “Soudárion,”
on the other hand, allows me to say from my moral certainty that it corresponds
with the veil from Manoppello. This certainty is supported by various data.
First and foremost, the veil was kept in
Jerusalem as a precious remembrance of the Redeemer. Then it was taken to
Camulia in Cappadocia where it was venerated for a long time. From there it was
later taken under the threat of the so-called iconoclasts first to
Constantinople and then in safety to Rome. Here it was displayed at the beginning
of the 13th century for the public to view where it was treasured as an
incomparable relic at St. Peter’s Basilica. When the new construction of the
magnificent and current St. Peter’s began on April 18, 1506, the sacred
Sudarium was still located in a vault from where the veil in all likelihood was
brought to safety by Cardinal Giampietro Carafa, Archbishop of Chieti and later
governor of the city (and future Pope Paul IV), in 1527 as German and Spanish
soldiers ravaged Rome in the so-called “Sacco di Roma.” And which place was
safer than a monastery on the other side of the Papal States’ borders – in his
diocese of Chieti-Vasto? Manoppello was the first town behind the border, which
is reached as soon as one comes out of Rome and therefore the holy veil arrived
here at a Capuchin monastery after it was previously kept in sure hands in
private homes. But when it was decided in 1640 to put the veil on display for
public veneration, the threat that the Vatican’s Chapter of Canons could demand to get the
veil back was foiled and thwarted by a certain Fra’ Donato da Bomba with a
chronicle in which he asserted that the holy veil had already reached Manoppello
in 1506, when the new construction on St. Peter’s began. Therefore, it could
not be possible to be the so-called Veil of Veronica as it was back then also called
in Rome. It was thus a pious lie, but nevertheless a lie even if it was
pronounced with good intentions, which
saved the whereabouts of this genuine divine proof of the passion and resurrection
of Christ for the people of Abruzzi and for all of us…
Badde: How
do you then explain the opposition against the Volto Santo, even still today,
especially in relation with the Shroud of Turin?
Archbishop Forte: The
Shroud of Turin has been well known and honored for a long time throughout the
world; however, the holy face of Manoppello seems for some still to be
something unheard of and new that is not supported in the same way from the
perception and tradition out of the faith of the people of God. But it is not
so in reality as I have just called to mind. Between these two incomparable
witnesses, there is not only no contradiction, but also they have even been
proved for a long time to concur and correspond perfectly to one another. The
Trappist sister Blandina Paschalis Schlömer has compellingly pointed out a
variety of concurring points that show the extreme
compatibility between the face on the Sindone (or Shroud) and the face on the
Sudarium. It indicates that there is a relationship between both cloths, which
were established in the holy tomb in Jerusalem. In any case, the Shroud of
Turin and the Manoppello Image show the inexplicable and mysterious way the
same person once dead and once alive. It is Jesus Christ, the Lord.
Badde: And
how do you answer the voices that claim the portrait of Christ on the veil of
Manoppelo is just simply “painted” and indeed from a human hand, probably
during the time of the Renaissance?
Archbishop Forte: The
Veil of Manoppello was tested under an electron microscope and even in extra
enlargements, no traces of paint were found. The image was not painted; rather,
it is a true image – and that makes it even more precious because it provides
us with a kind of authentic image, which we have of the Redeemer of the world.
Badde: In
Germany – especially since Rudolf Bultmann - the supposition that Jesus was
risen only “in Kerygma” meaning in the faith and in the speech and in the
preaching of the apostles was frequent even among theologians. Christ could not
possibly be raised from the dead. How do you as a theologian bring this modern
line of thought within the Church together with the process of the rediscovery
of the Holy Sudarium over the last 40 years in the Diocese of Chieti-Vasto?
Archbishop Forte: The
theses of Bultmann’s existentialist interpretation have been academically
obsolete for a while thanks to the return and development of research on the
historical Jesus. In the gap of time between the death of Jesus on the cross
and the new beginning of Easter, something essential must have happened in
order to transform the frightened and fleeing disciples on Good Friday into the
bold heralds of the resurrection of Christ on Easter. This “something” was not
a fruit of hysterical imagination of the events as, for example, Ernest Renan
declared; rather, it approaches them externally as an unexpected gift that
transformed their sorrow into joy and their fear into audacious courage and
their escape from Jerusalem into a new life and worldwide mission. To conclude,
there is almost complete unanimity in serious research since then on the
historical Jesus.
Badde: Since
Pope Benedict’s visit 10 years ago, the Volto Santo draws more pilgrims from
the whole world to Manoppello including countless bishops from every continent.
What other implications did Pope Benedict’s “private visit” have on your
diocese and on your faith?
Archbishop Forte: Certainly
Pope Benedict’s visit, which was accompanied by more than 300 media
representatives and about 70 television channels from the whole world, raised
the awareness of the holy face of Manoppello to a truly planetary level and
drew waves of pilgrims here. What delights me even more
as a believer and shepherd is this: that the visits of the “Volto Santo” are
kind of bound all together with personal confession and participation in the sacramental
Confession and the Eucharist and that is not an aesthetic phenomena, but a
thoroughly deep and transformative encounter with the risen Christ. And that is
truly a wonderful gift to us all.
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| Pope Benedict XVI Delivering an Address in the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello September 1, 2006 |
Badde: On
this coming September 17th, you will receive 70 catholic and orthodox bishops
before the Holy Face in Manoppello. In 2005 you invited Pope Benedict to the
Holy Veli. How did these bold and audacious initiatives come about?
Archbishop Forte: Here
I must specify that Pope Benedict’s decision to come to the Volto Santo was
made by he himself and totally alone. He shared that with me even before his
election to be the Successor of Peter and after the election in the course of
an audience, in which I participated as member of the Pontifical Council for
Christian Unity. This initiative was a great gift from him. I was very happy about
that and it filled me with great thankfulness towards him.
Badde: What
will you tell Pope Francis about the concrete “Misericordiae Vultus” (Face of
Mercy) in Manoppello, if the opportunity should ever arise?
Archbishop Forte: I
have already spoken enthusiastically with his Holiness about the Holy Face of
Manoppello and also sent him a beautiful reproduction. For that reason, I leave
it all now in his hands and in the hands of God. It lies there now and will
continue on in the right manner.
Translated
from German to English by R. Andrew Krema
