FAITH & VALUES

Shrouded in mystery

A conference at Ohio State this weekend will present new research on the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. Most participants are believers, but a few skeptics will take part.
Friday,  August 15, 2008 3:13 AM
By Meredith Heagney

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

There's a new wrinkle in the mystery of a linen cloth that some say held Jesus' body.

The Shroud of Turin has fascinated scientists and theologians who have spent decades trying to determine whether the artifact was the burial cloth of Jesus or a fake made in the Middle Ages.

Local researchers say they have new information that discredits the assumption that the shroud is a hoax. It will be presented at a conference this weekend at Ohio State University.

No one knows the shroud's origin for sure.

"Everybody loves a mystery," said Barrie Schwortz, photographer for the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project Inc., the first extensive scientific examination of the relic. Schwortz, who is Jєωιѕн, docuмents news and research about the shroud on his Web site, www.shroud.com.

"If this were any other man who ever lived in history, nobody would care."

The shroud, which is more than 14 feet long and 3 feet wide, appears to bear the image of a crucified man, whose wounds match the Gospel account of Jesus' execution. It's owned by the Roman Catholic Church and kept in St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin, Italy.

Pope Benedict XVI announced this year that the shroud will go on rare public display in 2010.

In 1998, the Catholic Church asked scientists to perform carbon testing. The scientists said the shroud came from medieval times and could not have existed at the time Jesus was crucified.

At the conference this weekend, believers in the shroud's authenticity say they will reveal new data showing that the corner that was sampled contained cotton threads, and is therefore not representative of the main cloth, which is linen. A sample that's not representative can't be used to date the shroud, the researchers say.

The work was led by Robert Villarreal, a chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

His work further confirms the theory of Dublin couple Joe Marino and Sue Benford. Neither is a professional researcher, but they've devoted a combined 42 years to studying the shroud.

Marino, a former Benedictine monk and Catholic priest, is the event's main organizer.

In the 1500s, the shroud went on a tour of Europe, and security wasn't tight, Benford said. It's possible somebody removed a small piece of the shroud and patched it using "invisible weaving," a common technique at the time that would've left the alteration unnoticeable to the naked eye.

Most people at the conference will agree, but there will be a few skeptics. One Spanish physician will present forensic evidence that the person wrapped in the cloth didn't die, which clearly contradicts the Gospel, Marino said. The conference, which costs between $300 and $350 to attend, is now closed to registration.

Despite ample evidence that the relic is a fake, many Christians will insist it's real, said Joe Nickell, a senior research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y. Nickell, who is not a scientist, has written a book about the shroud and said he assembled his own scientific team to examine the data.

"Science and scholarship have absolutely proven the Shroud of Turin as a 14th-century forgery," he said. "They're trying to sell you on a mystery."

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