The shroud went on display in 1998 after a 20-year-wait and then in 2000 during Millennium celebrations.Ĭhurch officials resisted putting the cloth on display when tourists poured into Turin in 2006 for the Winter Olympics. But recent decades have seen much shorter intervals. Traditionally, the public gets a peek at the 14-foot-long, 3.5-foot-wide cloth only once every 25 years.
That number doesn't include Pope Benedict XVI, who will fly up to Turin, Piedmont's capital, in northwest Italy, on May 2 for a day trip to pray before the shroud.
