Shroud of Turin News: After 5-Year Break, 'Jesus's Burial Cloth' Back on Public Display

The Shroud of Turin, believed to be Jesus Christ's burial cloth, is now back on display for public viewing in the Italian city's cathedral.

The 4.4-meter-long cloth seems to show an imprint of a man's face and body that would match a person who was crucified.

The cloth will be available for viewing from April 19 to June 24, after a five-year break, The Independent reported on Sunday. Some 2.5 million people came to see the cloth in 2010.

The viewings are free but those who want to see the shroud are required to book ahead of time. More than a million people have already made reservations to see the exhibit, according to Turin's mayor. Pope Francis booked to view the cloth, believed to have marks from Jesus' dried blood, on June 21 following an overnight trip.

The cloth, displayed inside a climate-controlled case, has been considered by skeptics as a medieval forgery from the 1300s, citing carbon dating results.

But last year, scientists in Italy claimed that a powerful 8.2-magnitude earthquake that took place in Jerusalem in 33 A.D. was likely to have been strong enough to release neuron particles from crushed rock, creating the X-ray like image of the man's face.

This radiation would have interfered with the carbon-dating process carried out in 1988.

A decade after the said test, the former Cardinal Archbishop of Turin said the results are part of an "overseas Masonic plot" that was meant to discredit the Roman Catholic Church.

Another set of scientists set out to debunk the medieval forgery claim, saying the creation of the image on the cloth was "supernatural."

According to them, a "short and intense burst of UV directional radiation can color linen cloth so as to reproduce many of the peculiar characteristics of the body image on the Shroud of Turin," but that "this degree of power cannot be reproduced by any normal UV source built to date."

The Church has not officially declared that the shroud covered the body of Christ, focusing instead on what it means to people who view the cloth.

Benedict XVI, the pontiff before Pope Francis, said the cloth is an icon "written with the blood" of a crucified man, and there was "full correspondence with what the Gospels tell us of Jesus."

However, Pope John Paul II, who viewed the shroud in 1998, said the mystery behind the cloth forces questions about faith and sciences and if it really belonged to Jesus. He also encouraged continuous study.