[1] Ballestrero likewise was known for being reserved when it came to the Shroud of Turin as opposed to the enthusiasm of John Paul II for the relic.

The cardinal allowed for testing of the shroud and announced that the relic itself was a product of the Middle Ages as opposed to the genuine burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

He was enrolled at the Collegio Belimbau in 1922 before he received his confirmation in the San Martino di Albaro church on 3 May 1923; he made his First Communion the next month on 21 June.

[2] He made his first vows on 17 October 1929 and was later sent to the Genoese convent of Santa Anna in September 1932 for his philosophical and theological studies.

[3] He began teaching philosophical studies at the "studentato" of Genoa-S. Anna from 13 August 1936 and initiated a preaching apostolate in a Genoese hospital (the "Bertani") from 1 January 1937.

He received his episcopal consecration on in the Santa Teresa church 2 February 1974 in Rome from Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio with Bishops Michele Mincuzzi and Enrico Romolo Compagnone serving as the co-consecrators.

[3] Pope John Paul II elevated him into the cardinalate and named him as the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria sopra Minerva on 30 June 1979.

Ballestrero resigned as the Archbishop of Turin on 31 January 1989 and retired to the Santa Croce convent in La Spezia (though he would still continue to give spiritual retreats); he lost the right to vote in a papal conclave on 3 October 1993 after he turned 80.

He is buried in the San Giuseppe del Deserto church attached to the same Carmelite convent in Varazze that he had entered in 1924.

The first move to launch the cause was to transfer the forum for the diocesan investigation from La Spezia (where the cardinal died) to Turin.

In reference to abortion the cardinal once declared that the Catholic Church must "never renounce its mission of evangelization and education of the human conscience".