The Turin Shroud

Ruth Geldhill has an interesting article on the Turin Shroud on her blog. I think this is such an amazing item and seems, for me at least, to have featured large in my faith journey. Never a central issue, but it has been there all along. When I was younger I was absolutely convinced it was the genuine article. There was no doubting in my mind.

Then, as I grew, and perhaps true to say as I grew more cynical, I became convinced it was a fake. The evidence for this shift? Because the Church (or probably because the Pope as I would have seen it) was keeping the information from the public. There's no smoke without fire and if they've nothing to hide, then they'd tell us all about it. Wouldn't they? Anyway, had it not been leaked that the carbon dating 'proved' that it was a fake? Surely! And we all now know that science doesn't make mistakes. The facts cannot lie.


My faith was reignited and suddenly the shroud was probably the real thing. I journeyed ever closer to the Lord, saw the documentary on the TV a couple of years back (was it Martin Bashir?) and was utterly convinced it was genuine. I got over-excited and was busy sharing my new found confidence in it's authenticity was everyone. Sorry, to all my friends!!


Now it seems that there is to be a new documentary, there is more Vatican commentary and it all starts over again. What do I think today? Is it real? Well, probably, yes. Does my faith depend on it being real, as it once probably did? No it does not, and if truth be known, nor did my faith ever depend on the authenticity or otherwise of the Turin Shroud.


Want a better conundrum - what if archeology unearthed the bones of Jesus. Now, what would Dan Brown have to say on this, I wonder?

11 April - update Fr Longenecker writes: We watched The Passion of the Christ last night, and it was cool to see that James Caviezel's make up was designed to make him look like the man on the shroud.