She concluded that the image could not have been painted by a medieval artist, and that its appearance on the cloth is unexplainable. Hungarian-born artist Isabel Piczek (1927-2016), for example, who was a friend of Accetta’s, was an expert in art history. Yet others with different backgrounds bring new perspectives. As a doctor of medicine, for example, Accetta sees in it an image of a body in the state of rigor mortis, but which has not yet begun to decompose, as would occur five days after death - consistent with what Scripture says about Christ’s Resurrection on the third day after his crucifixion. While the Vatican takes no official position on the Shroud’s origins, it has encouraged the faithful to venerate it as an image of the crucified Christ.Īccetta’s personal studies of the Shroud centered on his areas of interest: medicine, chemistry and physics. Many scientists disregard these findings today, however, believing the single carbon-14 test sample to have been contaminated and the scientific method used flawed. A decade later, however, carbon-14 dating placed the Shroud’s origin between 12, thereby making it a clever forgery. The results were generally favorable to the Shroud’s authenticity. The investigation culminated in an intensive 1978 study by a team of 40 scientists, led by Colorado physicist John Jackson. An Italian photographer, Secondo Pia, first captured it on film in 1898 and made a startling discovery that would touch off a flurry of scientific investigation - the negative produced a white, ghostlike image of far greater clarity than the original. It was moved to Turin in 1578, and for centuries attracted large numbers of pilgrims. The first written description of the burial cloth comes from the 14th century by a French crusader who described it in a report to Rome. To those who accept its authenticity, it offers a graphic and compelling insight into the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and a “snapshot” of his Resurrection. Approximately 700 wounds of various sizes appear on the body, signs of a brutal death. On the front and back are faint, blood-stained images of a 6-foot, 175-pound man who bears the same wounds as those inflicted upon Christ as described in the four Gospels. The Shroud is said to be an ancient burial linen 14’3” long and 3’7” wide. He first read of it as a teenager and later, in medical school, developed a friendship with a prominent Shroud scientist, Allan Wanger of Duke Medical School in North Carolina. Throughout this time, the Shroud remained a curiosity to him. He joined her church and enjoyed the fellowship there, but had little supernatural faith. He married a fundamentalist Protestant, Stacey, with whom he had two children. In college, however, he immersed himself in scientific study alongside many agnostics who considered religion and science incompatible. Accetta grew up in Huntington Beach in Southern California, and was an active parishioner in his parish as a teen, and later became the parish’s youth minister. John Paul II knelt in prayer before the Shroud and later remarked that it is “a challenge to our intelligence … an image that everyone can see but no one can yet explain.”Īccetta also made the journey to Turin that year, observing the Shroud in reverential silence for nearly two hours with other spellbound pilgrims. The Shroud of Turin is taken out periodically to be venerated by the faithful. As he gazed upon the image of Christ’s crucified face, miraculously imprinted on the Shroud and preserved through the centuries, he knew he had to confront a personal issue that he had been pondering over the previous two years of his study: How could he remain agnostic? The Shroud, indeed, is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. In his mind, the scientific evidence was overwhelming. In 1994, after years of intensive study, California physician August Accetta reached his conclusion about the Shroud of Turin. “To them presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs …” (Acts 1:3)
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