TACOMA — Catholics around the archdiocese are invited to view a full-sized photo of the Shroud of Turin that is on loan to Tacoma parishes for display during Holy Week.

“It's very, very powerful,” said Ron Gallucci, a former Tacoma resident who said his photograph was taken by Giuseppe Enrie, a Turin photographer commissioned to photograph the Shroud of Turin in the early 1930s. 

Currently housed in Italy, the Shroud of Turin is a linen burial cloth believed to bear the imprint of Christ’s face and wounds. 

The image is so powerful, Gallucci said, that visitors to his home and people viewing it at museums and parishes across the country have fallen to their knees before it.

The photograph, double framed in Italian burlwood so both front and back are visible, is “impressive,” said Francie Messina Jordan, who arranged to bring the piece to Tacoma. Jordan and Gallucci grew up together at St. Rita of Cascia Parish (now a station of Pope St. John XXIII Parish), where their grandparents were founding members.

Jordan said she mentioned the photograph to Father Tuan Nguyen, pastor of Pope St. John XXIII, who was “very interested in it.” Jordan worked with Father Nguyen and Jeannine Wargo, the parish’s administrative assistant, to schedule the display at local locations. The tour began on Palm Sunday at Pope St. John XXIII Church (see the remaining schedule below).

“There is a lot of interest and excitement over it coming here,” Jordan said.

Jordan said she and her husband Stan “lovingly” transported the photograph from Gallucci’s Arizona home in their motor home.

Stan Jordan stands next to the Shroud of Turin photograph that is on display at Tacoma locations during Holy Week. Jordan and his wife, Francie Messina Jordan, drove the life-sized photograph from Arizona to Tacoma for the Holy Week tour. (Courtesy Francie Messina Jordan)

Returning to Tacoma is the latest leg in what has been a long journey for the photograph. According to Gallucci, his grandparents acquired it in Italy in the 1950s at the request of Jesuit Father Andrew Vachon. Getting it back to the United States involved extensive paperwork and a period of waiting.

Decades later, Gallucci said, he tracked down the photograph at Gonzaga University, where Father Vachon was an instructor and photographer and artist in residence until his death. 

As Gallucci moved, the photograph went with him, and he loaned it for display. The shroud photograph spent some time at the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans in Shreveport, Louisiana, which houses the Orareo Collection of artifacts related to the shroud.

Wherever the photo of the shroud has been, “it’s aroused a lot of attraction,” Gallucci said. 

See the Shroud of Turin photograph

The full-sized photograph of the Shroud of Turin will be on display at these dates, times and locations:

Good Friday (April 7)

  • Noon to 1 p.m. at St. Rita Station (of St. Pope John XXIII Parish), 1403 S. Ainsworth Ave., Tacoma. Pray the Stations of the Cross; afterward, Ron Gallucci will be available to talk about the photograph and answer questions.
  • 7 p.m. at South Tacoma Chapel (formerly Visitation Church) of Pope St. John XXIII Parish, 3314 S. 58th St., Tacoma.

Holy Saturday (April 8), St. Charles Borromeo Church

  • Noon to 5 p.m. in the vestibule of the church, 7112 S. 12th St., Tacoma.
  • Thirty minutes before and after the 8 p.m. Easter Vigil Mass, in the church vestibule. 

Easter Sunday (April 9), St. Charles Borromeo Church

  • Thirty minutes before and after all Easter Sunday Masses (8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.) in the church vestibule.