OTHERS
==ON THIS PAGE:
i) Lyrics and ii) Instrumental.
Click this link> www.ichrusa.com/saintsalive/obsturin.htm
It is the Lord
as he did.
4) Gratitude to Our Benefactors: The Book, KWAUSO Thanks the Lord for the Shroud.
Dedication
To all those
who, in their desire to thank the Lord for his infinite
mercy and love for us
contemplate the icon of his suffering, death and glorious
resurrection
which appears to us as an inexplicable selfie in the
Shroud;
And to every
individual
who, spiritually or materially has offered their
generosity
in the creation of KWAUSO Secondary School.
ii
Contents
Contents
Dedication…………………………………………………………………………. i
Contents.................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… iii
Preface by Prof Giulio Fanti, Padova........................................................................ iv
Introduction and A Thematic Summary Display...................................................... v
Part I. The Shroud: Enigmatic Witness under Scientific Inquiry……………............. 1
Part II. A Sequel of Gazing at the Shroud and An Ensemble of Gratitude Tokens ..... 49
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..98
Apendix I. More Symbols at KWAUSO…………………………………………….99
Appendix II: A Passing Turbulence in Flight……………………………………….101
iii
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to each and everybody who has assisted me in
writing this book. My first thanks go to Our Lord who has shown me the way to
appreciate the mystery of the Shroud which has formed my way of looking at
things by contempating this mystery. In the second place I thank my Diocesan
leaders who over the years have allowed me to try doing something to promote
the cause of the Shroud starting with the kind encouragement from the late
Bishop Nestor Timanywa, who welcomed my idea of writing my first book on the
Shroud in the Kiswahili language, Uso: Utafiti Kuhusu Uwezekano wa Picha
ya Mateso ya Kristu, shortly after my return from for studies in
Philosophy, 1992/93 and later allowed me to pursue my dream of doing KWAUSO
Secondary School as a response to the prompt of the Shroud of Turin to think of
turning my eye to the fact that we live in a world with people in varying life
situations some of whom need our greater attention than other.
I thank the Shroud researchers and all the people who have
done so much to bring to light the facts we all need to understand, at least to
some measure, the mystery of the Shroud. Without their work this book would
have never been written. I am particularly thankful to the people who have
provided me with some of the pictures related to the Shroud research appearing
in this book including Alfonso Sanches, Barrie Schwortz and Emanuela Marinelli.
I thank the individual friends who have allowed me to use their private
pictures. Here I am thinking of friends like Philip and Paula Steele and their
daughter Lucinda, Adriana Acutis, Mathew and Tamara Bruno, Monte and Harriet
Alkire, Paula Freepartner, Frank and Amy Pala, Joy Morland, Chiara Molfese
Pavan, Maria Grazia Franco, Kris Applebee, David Kraft and others.
I thank all the people who, motivated by their kind
generosity to look beyond the bounderies of their own needs have, each in their
different ways, contributed from what
belonged to them towards the building of KWAUSO Secondary School which in turn
gives relevance to the talk contained in this book. I thank the cloistered nuns
of the Poor Clares Monstery of Itahwa, the KWAUSO School community and many
other people elsehwere who have been supporting me with their prayers.
I pray that the Lord will bless them all.
Fr. Stanislaus Mutajwaha.
iv
PREFACE
By Prof. Giulio Fanti, Padova
The wo
The words appearing here as a Preface to this book were sent to me as a
personal letter in the Italian language by Associate Professor Giulio Fanti,
one of the world most respected scientific Shroud researchers working with the
Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Padua in Italy. The
letter is Professor Fanti’s answer to the question I addressed to him regarding
his opinion of the Shroud as an active scientist after more than 25 years of
investigating the mystery of the Shroud particularly the aspect of its Image formation.
His original words will come after my translation.
Dear Fr. Stanislaus Mutajwaha,
I thank you for what you have written to me.
It is a mystery of the cross because it allows us to understand how
much and to what extent Jesus has suffered for us human beings and for our
salvation. Analysis of the blood imprinted on the Sacred Linen is leading me to
grasp the inconceivable reality of the sufferings endured by this Man before
his death.
It is a mystery of Light because there is encoded within it the proof
of the Resurrection which is gradually emerging even from the scientific point
of view. The 1988 carbon-14 dating
results which declared the material of the Shroud to be of medieval origin will
be debunked by being shown to be false for soon is coming the first physical
proof of the Resurrection.
In fact, one of my scientific publications
appearing in the Journal of World Scientific News already gives
hints pointing to this conclusion.
So then, what is the ultimate meaning of the Holy Shroud? The Shroud is a divine gift; a symbol of the
Resurrection. As St. John Paul II says,
“… when everything crumbles down… even within ourselves…Christ remains our
unfailing support”, and I would add, for our immortal soul clothed in a mortal
body.
With best regards,
Giulio Fanti.
The original letter:
=================================
Carissimo Padre Stanislaus Mutajwaha,
la ringrazio per quanto
mi ha scritto.
Lei mi chiede di
scrivere due righe su quello che penso della Sacra Sindone e qui sotto le
riporto alcuni pensieri derivanti da più di 25 anni di studi scientifici e non
solo, sulla Reliquia più importante della Cristianità.
Dopo tutti questi anni
di studi, ringraziando lo Spirito Santo e Gesù stesso che mi hanno illuminato
sull'argomento, sono sicuro: la Sacra Sindone ha avvolto il corpo di Gesù
Cristo risorto. Questa Reliquia è la carta d'identità di Gesù che definisco in accordo
con Papa Benedetto XVI "Mistero di Croce e di Luce".
Mistero di Croce
perchè ci permette di capire quante e quali sofferenze Gesù ha sofferto per noi
uomini e per la nostra salvezza. L'analisi del sangue impresso sul Sacro Lino
mi sta facendo capire l'inimmaginabile entità delle sofferenze subite da quest'Uomo
prima della Sua morte.
Mistero di Luce perchè
nel lino sindonico è codificata la prova della Risurrezione che via via sta
emergendo anche dal punto di vista scientifico; il risultato errato della
datazione al carbonio 14 del 1988 che ha dichiarato questo tessuto di origine
medievale, sarà presto ribaltato poichè sarà la prima prova fisica della
Risurrezione. Infatti già una mia pubblicazione scientifca sul journal
scietifico World Scientific News fornisce i primi indizi su questo risultato.
Qual'è quindi il
significato ultimo della Sacra Sindone? Essa è un dono divino, il simbolo della
Risurrezione. In accordo con S. Giovanni Paolo II, "... quando tutto
crolla ... anche dentro di noi ... Cristo resta l'indefettibile nostro sostegno",
e aggiungerei, per la nostra anima immortale vestita di un corpo mortale.
Con i più cordiali
saluti.
Giulio Fanti.
GIULIO FANTI Associate Professor, Department
of Industrial Engineering, University of Padua.
v
INTRODUCTION AND A THEMATIC SUMMARY DISPLAY
This book is not ready
for publication as it lacks some technical elements which I still need time to
add and make in order to make it open to the general public. Until that is
done, it remains with the value of a logically unified set of private notes for
perusal and sharing with my friends for whom it is primarily meant as my
thankful token to the Lord and to them. In the first place the book speaks about the
Shroud of Turin, a cloth
preserved in Turin, one Italian city located on the Northwest region of that
country known as Piedmont since 1578 A.D.
The cloth comes to us as an enigmatic object that, as a witness of its
own kind, veils and unveils truths about the greatest of all events in human
history, namely the passion and victory of Jesus Christ. It is an object within
sensible reality that however eludes the competence of the tools upon which
human understanding of the sensible order depends. This cloth, which I was
fortunate to see with my own eyes while on public display the year 2000 is
believed by millions of people around the world including myself, to be the
very garment that wrapped the body of Jesus Christ as he lay dead in the tomb
till the resurrection, that moment of all moments in history that knows not any
sufficient explanation. In the eyes of many, this is the cloth, though now old
and frail that captured the event that no human eye was ever lucky to see.
Even though it is not written by a scientist, the book looks at the
phenomenon of this enigma and proposes one relevant interpretation of its
message in our concrete historical context, namely the School of KWAUSO as we
stand stunned with great appreciation at the unexpected arrival of the recently
beatified and soon to be canonized Carlo Acutis into our School project for
children like he was at his passing.
Divided into two parts,
the main body of this book comprises of 48 short essays on consecutive odd
pages with collections of relevant pictures on the corresponding 48 even pages
intertwined between them.
A)
The
first part of our treatment examines the contention that THE SHROUD STANDS AUTHENTIC//IN THE
OPINION OF SCIENCE AND//THE PERCEPTION OF BELIEVERS. This previous sentence, in capitalized and
boldened characters, is formed by serially arranging (and reading together) the
initials of the first 24 captions of the essays appearing on the consecutive
odd pages under the first part followed by the ending characters of the words
of the same 24 captions; and then again serially arranging (and reading) the 24
initials of the second group of essay captions (again on odd pages) under the
second part.
Upon scrutiny the reader
discovers that the sentence gives a summary of the essays which it encompasses
namely that the Shroud is an event in the real order of sensible realities that
can be studied and investigated through the scientific method. That done, the
Shroud can also be accessed by the human intellect which, at least to some
measure, is capable of discerning truths that lie beyond the realms of mere
objectivity. Aware that even science has its boundaries and cannot claim
absolute capacity of determining all truth, a pronouncement on anything based
on its findings such as the authenticity of the Shroud must be made in a tone
of humility. This justifies our use of the term “opinion” in the
capitalized and boldened sentence above. Determination of absolute truth
belongs to an authority that resides above science. Science can determine much
but not all and therefore it must be accorded the respect that it deserves; not
more.
B) The second part turns
around the fact of KWAUSO Secondary, one attempt to translate the Shroud message of love and the
self-emptying action of our Lord, the Man we all see in the Shroud, into a
contextually relevant and urgently called-for response. It is a thankful
recognition of the place of Providence in the making of KWAUSO which at
different stages of its realization has witnessed tremendous amounts of
generosity from many people in a surprising way climaxing in the totally
unexpected arrival of Blessed Carlo Acutis into our project, that was conceived
and intended to promote the Shroud of Turin by reaching out to the people we
might possibly reach with its message of compassion and care. This theme is summarized by the phrase: “THANKS BLESSED CARLO ACUTIS”. Here again the reader notices that the words
forming this phrase are the last letters of the ending words of the essay
titles treated in the second part of the book read from top to bottom on the
table of contents.
The book is written in the light that even though the Shroud requires
the special expertise of the scientist to read and interpret it as an objective
phenomenon, the weightier part of its meaning lies outside the competence of
science. Science can only give scientific explanation of the Shroud. But,
however fine and accurate scientific answers may be, they will remain unable to
exhaust all the questions the human spirit poses about this artifact. Since the
arrival of modern science, the Shroud has intrigued the scientist and still
baffles the world of learning itself. But even now, it leaves the curiosity of
the unsophisticated onlooker and the non-scientific audience unabated. The reason behind this is that for all of its frailty as a textile, the
Shroud touches man, especially the believer, as a spiritual being and can even
impact his social life as well depending on how the individual approaches
it. And that is exactly where an
activity like a school, rooted in its contemplation can come in and find justification. For that reason, the
second section dwells on the foundation and sense of building KWAUSO Secondary
School to the honor of the One whose image we can all see in the Shroud. The
final pages offer us the place for expressing our gratitude to all who in one
way or other have involved themselves in bringing about KWAUSO as our
propitious opportunity to turn our eye on the needs of our brothers and
sisters.
While I write this book, I am aware that that Church has not yet
officially declared the Shroud the burial cloth of Jesus even though it
encourages its veneration. This is a truth that can be substantiated by citing
the unambiguous private veneration of the Shroud by practically all the popes
of the last and present century. In agreement with them I cannot pretend to
deny the fact that since I came into contact with the Shroud I have grown to
like and even let me be profoundly inspired by it even if there is not a hint
of it in the creed of the Catholic faith.
I became a priest under the guidance of the Catholic magisterium before
I knew anything about the Shroud. I had faith in the one true God and
everything spelt out by the creed of our Catholic faith. That faith still needs
to grow. But I am happy that the Shroud does not contradict it. On the contrary
it confirms it.
When the apostles heard that the Lord had risen, Peter and John wasted
no time to run to the tomb. They went to the tomb to see with their eyes
whatever they could find in connection with the wonderful news of the
resurrection of their master. Their decision was not a mistake. Upon arrival,
all that the apostles saw was an empty tomb and the Shroud plus other linens
and went back happy. Till now, over two thousand years later, the tomb is still
empty but the Shroud is in Turin. Having survived many dangers and all kinds of
vicissitudes of history the Shroud waits for us to acknowledge its existence
and respond to its message. There are myriad ways of responding to the message
it sends. For some, including myself, the Shroud can be counted as an object
that can enhance our pride of being believers in the risen Lord who really went
through the most terrible suffering for the salvation of mankind, leaving
behind a unique imprint of what he endured for posterity and for all of us.
There is an inner warmth about contemplating the Shroud. Incidentally the available data about the
Shroud in the hands of science cannot allow the scientist to question the
mental integrity of the believer who holds the Shroud as a valuable article.
Neither does the believer have any reason to doubt the stability and firmness
of his conviction that in gazing at the Shroud he/she is looking at a medium
that directs our thoughts to the mystery of our Lord. And sure enough, the
Church does not discourage us from drawing spiritual strength through our
contemplation of Jesus’ love for humanity by gazing at it.
Part I: THE SHROUD, ENIGMATIC WITNESS UNDER SCIENTIFIC
INQUIRY
1.TRIGGERED
IN BY A MAGAZINE REPORT ABOUT THE PASSIO CHRISTI
3.HOOKED ON BY DATA AS OPPOSED TO INSTINCTIVE NEGATION
5.ENTHRALLING IMAGE: SAGA OF AN IMPOSSIBLE ARTIFACT
7. SERENE FACE OF GREAT MAJESTY IN DEATH
9.HIDDEN MYSTERIES IN A PRE-MODERN ERA SELFIE
11.ROMAN CRUCIFIXION:
HINTED BY COIN OF CAESAR TIBERIO
13.OVERHWELMING
NUMBER OF WOUNDS BY A TERRIBLE WHIP
15.UNPACKING THE CASE OF A MAN SIMILAR TO THE
BIBLICAL INRI
17.DEATH AFTER
HORRIBLY EXCRUCIATING AGONY AND HUMILIATION
19.SECONDO PIA’S SUPRISE PHOTOS AND POLLEN REVELATIONS BY MAX FREI
21.TRACKING THE PROVENANCE OF THE SHROUD AND THE
SUDARIUM OF OVIEDO
23.A VICTIM OF TORTURE AS ATTESTED BY THE HIGH LEVELS
OF BILIRUBIN
25. NOT A
PAINTING NOR A SCORCH YET EVOKING PILATE’S ECCE HOMO
27. DERIDED, SCORNED, MOCKED, FLOGGED, CRUCIFIED AND CUT OFF
29. SIDE
PIERCED BY LANCE WHILE BACK LACERATED BY SCOURGES
31.ACCREDITED
BY TRADITION AND DEFENDED BY THE AGNOSTIC
33.UNSOLVED BY THE STURP SCIENTISTS AT SAN
GIOVANNI
35.THREE DIMENTIONAL
DATA ENCODED IN THE IMAGE
37.HEAD CUPPED WITH
THORNS FOR ABYSMAL PAIN
39.ENTOMBED JEWISH STYLE; HIS FEATURES SEMITIC
41.NEW LINEN APT FOR A HIGH PRIESTLY TRIBUTE
43.TEMPORARY BURIAL IN THE LAND OF JUDEA
45.INCORRUPTIBILITY
SNAP-SHOTTED ONTO THE LINEN
47.CARBON-DATED MEDIEVAL IN 1988 BY A TEST NOW
DEBUNKED
Part II. A SEQUEL OF GAZING AT THE SHROUD
AND AN ENSEMBLE OF GRATITUDE TOKENS
"IL DOPO LO SGUARDO ALLA SINDONE"
49.TOUCHED BY AN ICON WITH
INNOCENT BLOOD OF ONE WOUNDED IN THE HEART
51. HEALED IN ORDER TO FORSTER AND PROMOTE OTHER
PEOPLE’S INTEGRAL HEALTH
53. EXAMINING
THE CALL TO COMMITMENT BY THE SHROUD IN THE CONTEXT OF TANZANIA
55.PONDERING
THE PROSPECTS OF A SCHOOL AS AN APT SEQUEL FOR EXECUTION
57.ENKINDLED BY MEMORIES OF FR. PETER RINALDI’S PRAYER YEARS BACK
59.RAYS OF COMPASSION RENDING THE HEARTS OF
SHROUD GAZERSS
61.CHRIST
WITNESSED BY SELFLESS COMMITMENT: A NEW
GARB
63.EDUCATE
THE YOUTH AT A
GOSPEL FLAVORED SCHOOL
65. PLAN A
TIMELINE WHILE LISTENING TO PROVIDENCE
67.TWENTYONE UNEXPECTED PRE-SCHOOL LITTLE ANGELS
69.INITIATIVES SECURED BY CONSISTENCY AND THE
TRUST OF DONORS
71.ORIGINAL CONCEPTION FIRMLY BUTTRESSED ON THE
WINGS OF HOPE
73.NURTURING A CARING CULTURE FOR A BROTHER OR SISTER IN NEED
75.OPENNESS AND AVAILABILITY TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE RELIC
77.FIX THE KEENER EYE ON THE LESS FORTUNATE IN
THE AREA
79.BUILD HEARTS NOW FOR GREATER PROSPERITY LATER
81.EXCELLENCE
OF ASPIRATION CAPTURED BY SYMBOL
83. LEARNING A LIFE OF SERVING OTHERS AT KWAUSO
85. INDEBTED TO EXTOL OUR BEFACTORS: LYRICS AND ARIA
87. ECHOES OF JUBILANT GRATITUDE TO A RHYTHM OF MUSIC
89.VIVA ADRIANA ACUTIS FOR A GEM OF A CHURCH THROUGH YOU
91.EXULTATION TO GOD FOR BRINGING CARLO ACUTIS INTO OUR
PROJECT
93.REVERBERATE
A PRAYER FOR OUR WELL-WISHERS IN CHORUS A TUTTI
95.
SING A
THANKFUL HYMN TO PROVIDENCE FOR ALL THESE FAVOURS
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~01~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
1. TRIGGERED IN BY A MAGAZINE REPORT ABOUT THE PASSIO
CHRISTI
1) Awareness: My awareness of the existence
of the Shroud came all unexpected. It was in the Easter week of 1985. During
those days I was working in the Diocesan Minor Seminary known as Rubya. It was a kind of Seminary routine that after
the seminarians had celebrated Easte at the Seminary as a community they would
be allowed to go home for a week-long vacation. That left the teachers the
freedom to visit their friends and families if they so wished. This is the time
I went to visit a confrère in a not very distant Parish and spent some two
nights there.
I now regard that visit providential. Perusing through
the books and journals in the Parish library my eye hit upon an article written
a few years earlier on in June 1980 by one Vernon Miller
of the Brooks Institute, California in the National
Geographic Magazine. The
article was about the Shroud of Turin. This is the thing that triggered me into
my hitherto unquenched thirsty to understand what the Man we see in the Shroud
wants to tell us. It was through this article that I got to know for the first
time ever that there was such a thing in existence. The article was already old
and it might have been regarded an archival[H1] material for those who had already read it, but for
me it was breaking news. As I read through the article about a linen sheet in a
town known as Turin, Italy on which was an imprint of a human form reminiscent
of the passion of Jesus Christ, (Passio Christi) as recorded in
the Gospels, my feelings became split. My instinctive opinion was that, the
story could not be true; It sounded to me like a curious tale – nothing more.
Ironically the obstacle lay in my seemingly long time in the priesthood. By
that time, I was going through my eighth year in the priesthood. The question
forced itself in: How could it be possible that me, with so many years in the
priesthood I was not at least remotely aware of the existence of this object
that speaks about so wonderfully things concerning the Jesus I talk about every
day?
2) Doubt: So, in a way the strongest reason for my
reluctance to accept the Shroud was that I had heard nothing about it during my
seminary days. I know, my teachers had
given me the best they had. To my way of thinking, I was now always wondering
why practically all of them had kept silent about this thing if they believed
there was any sense in it. The answer occurred to me that none of my teachers
in the Philosophicum and in the Theologicum was assigned to teach Sindonology.
That being the case, it was obvious that none of them was to blame. Their
silence was no proof that they had no idea about the Shroud. When assigned to
teach in the Seminary, you do not go there and begin saying whatever you have
in your head or begin feeding your students with what appeals to your likes. In
the Seminary, just like elsewhere in the field of academics, time is normally
precious. You will do the best if you respect the syllabus and that way respect
your students’ time and do them justice. But now, leaving the past behind us to
take care of itself, if the Shroud is what I now believe it is, I wonder if it
would not be proper to introduce a brief course in the Seminary about the
Shroud. Science cannot be saying such marvelous things about Jesus while the
young priest is left totally uninformed about them.
3) Inner Joy: In any case, while my head, (for no reason I
could produce) told me that the message contained in that article was
unacceptable, my heart liked what I read.
So, at the end of my reading, I found myself caught up
between two choices, namely either to throw away the
article into the junk bin for the reason that I lacked the required willingness
to accept what it said or to reread it so as to make sure that the attraction
that had caught my heart at the first reading of it was not baseless. Between
the two options my pick was to reread the article. But even at the end of this
second reading, my head was still bombarded with more questions and stronger
doubts even though at the same the attraction of the narrative did not
diminish. Then I decided to postpone my final verdict about the matter to a
third reading, later in the evening. The hours that elapsed between the second
and the third reading that was yet to follow saw me in the mood probably
reminiscent of doubting Thomas upon hearing the report about the resurrection
of Jesus from the mouths of his fellow apostles. Probably to Thomas’ ear the
report of the resurrection sounded too good to be true.
4) Towards formation of a personal opinion: When evening came, I read the article again more
attentively. By retiring time, the
queries and doubts were still dominating in my head while the inner warmth
about the possible meaning of what I had read still remained unchanged. That
sense of ambivalence concerning this matter kept on smoldering within me for
weeks and months after that day. But it was not to last forever. June the same
year I was assigned to teach in one Major Seminary known as Ntungamo. While there,
Providence led me into acquaintance with Fr. Peter Rinaldi one of the directors
of the Shroud Guild in America, who was also close to the group of Shroud
Researchers known as STURP (The Shroud of Turin Research Project). By
mail he supplied me with the continuing publications of the Shroud Guild
Newsletters, pamphlets and books that brought stronger light into my Shroud
quest.
In July 1988 I got the opportunity to do further
studies in Philosophy in Rome. There I kept in good contact with Fr. Rinaldi
who besides some important books including Ian Wilson’s classic, The Shroud
of Turin kept me updated. I was also
lucky to come in touch with some sindonologists including Professor
Maria Marinelli. Hearing these people talk and share about the Shroud helped me
start forming my own opinion that the right way to approach the Shroud is to
keep proper attention and respect to the objective data gathered by the
competent researchers about it rather than be driven by some instinctive
negativity.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~02~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
The Shroud as it appears to the naked eye:
Sensible and credible even if enigmatic.
An encounter of the message of incorruptibility
in a frail piece of ancient cloth.
Sure comfort to the believer but a stumbling
block to the avowed skeptic.
Two images can be seen. From center towards left the eye sees a faint ghostly
image, head first, then chest, then arms
crossing at wrist length; then thighs and legs. That is the first image. Then again for the second image: From center
towards right the eye seees a the back of the head,then the shoulders, followed
by the back, then thighs and legs.
Interest in
the Shroud is no sign of lack of faith: At being told by his friends that Jesus had risen, the
Apostle Thomas instinctively doubted his colleagues’ veracity only soon later
to confess the risen Christ in the words “My lord and my God”. And then, the
past transpired, the believing Thomas did not hesitate to spend his entire life
witnessing Jesus’ supremacy and crowning it all by paying the ultimate price
for Our Lord in the act of irreversible martyrdom.
The
painting above shows Jesus allowing the doubting Thomas to use his senses of
sight and touch to make his assessment of the truth about the resurrection of
the incarnate Lord. He saw with his own eyes his wounded side and touched the
Lord with his hands to remove his doubts. Merciful Jesus did not revenge
Thomas’s incredulity. He welcomed him lovingly. He in fact utilized Thomas’
doubt to further strengthen the faith of the other Apostles who had already
accepted the truth of the resurrection. They too looked on as Jesus helped
Thomas to cross the line of unbelief. They did not close their eyes to protect
the purity of their faith as though sight were its the antinomy. In a similar way, a person who gazes at the
Shroud cannot be judged lacking in the faith. The Shroud is not meant to help
the unbeliever alone. It could be held as a reference of the certitude of the
strongest believer as well. Therefore, the believer needs not to shy away from
captivating interest in the Shroud.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
3. HOOKED ON BY DATA AS OPPOSED TO INSTINCTIVE
NEGATION
1)
The Shroud at the first glance: Basically, the Shroud is an old
linen cloth measuring 4.36m long by 1.10 wide (14’ 3” by 3’ 7”). Probably those measurements do not seem
sensible. But considered from the point of view of one ancient Middle East
measurement unit, the Syrian the cubit known to have been common during the
times of Jesus, the cited metric and British measurements correspond to 8
cubits by 2 cubits. The Shroud weighs 2.45 kg.
What first
steals the eye of the new onlooker is one set of parallel lines of dark scorch
marks interrupted at regular distances with whitish triangular formations which
are patches sewn onto the Shroud. Between the parallel lines can be seen two
images, frontal and dorsal of the same man estimated to be between 30-40 years
of age with apparently blood marks of a crucified man allover his body. The
images look like photographic pictures on non-photographic material leaving the
onlooker wondering whose images these could be. According to the Archeologist
William Meacham this man is estimated to weigh between 75-81 kg. His height is
between 175-180 cm (cf. William Meacham, The Authentication of the Turin
Shroud: An Issue in Archeological Epistemology, University of Chicago Press,
1983) – Shroud.com). The Shroud was
brought to the attention of science by the photographs of one lawyer and
amateur photographer Secondo Pia in 1898.
2)
Instinctive negation: But once the faint images are seen and carefully
examined a natural question presents itself follows: Could these images be
regarded as paintings? Whether drawings or not, of whom could they be? For,
examined through the eyes of the expert, what is seen here is a man brutally
scourged and tortured; a man crowned with thorns; a man crucified and while
dead pierced in the side letting out a flow of blood and water while hanging on
the cross. For anybody who has some knowledge of the gospel narratives, what we
see in the images evokes the story of Jesus. But strange enough, once it is
affirmed even if in the tone of a mere hypothesis, that the man here could
probably be Jesus, the proposal is met with the most instinctive negation. Unfortunately,
that is also how my first reaction was and I do not know how to explain it.
I
am not alone. It could be held as a good guess that a good number of the
present ardent believers in the Shroud were not much different from me. First
glance experience favors negation. Deeper concentration settles the more
reasonable understanding of the matter in the opposite direction. Cases of
individuals who persistently remain adamant ton their first glance conviction
do exist. But that is part of our concrete human existence. History reports
that when Delage, Professor in Anatomy at the Sorbonne Institute after a
thorough study of the photographs of the Shroud determined that the Man in the
Shroud is Jesus of Nazareth the whole academic Institute instinctively jeered
at him. Yet, till now the world does not seem to have a more accurate answer.
2)
Tested by fire: The scorch marks and white patches on the Shroud were
sawn there by the Chambery Poor Clare nuns the year 1534 following the fire
that had broken up on December 4, 1532 at night burning the chapel made
purposely to preserve the Shroud, known as the Sainte Chapelle du Chateau
des Ducs de Savoie. That fire almost destroyed the Shroud kept in a silver
casket. By the time the rescuers reached the place, the casket had already
started to melt along the top edges. The fire was quickly extinguished but a
drop of molten silver had just fallen on one corner of the rectangular folded
Shroud inside the casket burning through it. The
Shroud was lightly charred along one edge. On examination after the rescue, the
unfolded Shroud was found damaged in eight areas corresponding to the corner
that had been touched by the molten silver. The charred edge showed in two
parallel lines connecting the burn holes.
The triangular patches remained there for centuries till 2002
when they were removed “to restore the Shroud”.
It is between those parallel lines that two shadow-like images, frontal
and dorsal are unmistakably visible from a not too close distance.
Besides the
1532 Chambery fire, attested by the presence of the large patches and charred
lines, the Shroud carries a testimony of a prior fire that caused four sets of
little L-shaped holes. The artist who
must have noticed their presence on the Shroud reproduced them on his copy of
the Shroud on what has come to be referred to as Hungarian Pray Codex between
the years 1192-95. They must have been burnt into the Shroud in a fire that has
not been recorded, probably during a ritual event. That could have been the
first fire to be associated with the Shroud. A third fire occurred on 11 April,
1997. This time again the fire broke (to continue on the following page,
below the pictures).
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
In the past the Shroud was kept above the alter
in the Gurarino Casket in which
the Shroud was brought from
Guarini Chapel, above.
Chambery to Turin in 178.
Above, left: Mario Trematory (left) rescues the Shroud-containing box
during the 1997 fire. Above, right: Now the Shroud is secured in a special
inert gas case, under controlled temperature pictured here.
(Continued from pg 12, above)
up at night between the Royal Palace and the Turin
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in a place where the Shroud was kept,
threatening its total incineration. It was rescued through the indomitable
courage of one fire fighter called Mario Trematore using a sledge to break the
bullet proof glass behind which a box containing the Shroud lay. Trematore
later confessed: “God gave me the strength to break that glass”.
3. Conviction comes by stages: The Geographical Magazine article that opened my
eyes the year 1985 concerning the existence of the Shroud of Turin was an
attractive report of serious facts concerning one hitherto unknown artifact.
But, strange enough at the same time the article triggered inside me a kind of
instinctive rejection of the very possibility of the existence of this object.
The article awoke me up from my ignorance and ignited a fire of deep interest
within me. Yet, I cannot say that I became right away convinced that the Shroud
was authentic. My immediate fascination was quickly mitigated by doubts and
negative questions. While studying in
Rome between 1988 and 1992 I visited Torino, knowing that I would not be able
to see the Shroud as there was no public exposition going on there. I simply
went believing that by being in the place where the Shroud is kept, I would
feel some kind of satisfaction being in the vicinity of an object that speaks
great things to millions of people in the world. Yet again, I cannot say that
it was that trip that brought me to the conviction that the Shroud is genuine.
In the year 2000 the Shroud went on public display and my friends from Cavenago
di Brianza in Milano, Giulio Erba and Agnese Fumagalli offered me a return air
ticket and arranged that I could travel from Tanzania so I could see the Shroud
on public exhibition in Turin with my own eyes. The trip was a big success. A
small bus was hired and in a group of about twenty people we made our
pilgrimage from Cavenago to Turin. In Turin we all saw the Shroud and rejoiced.
Then we drove back home to Cavenago, all motivated. Nevertheless, I cannot say that my inner
conviction about the authenticity of the Shroud was triggered by my seeing it
for the first time on that occasion, since by that time the conviction was
already there.
That means,there isn’t a single event or point of
time that I can cite in isolation as my turning point from my instinctive
resistance to acceptation. It was rather a continual attraction of the Shroud
that drew me into the conviction. It will be shown in the next essay that as
time passed, my hesitation to accept the Shroud fell apart. The numerous
findings, attested by competent scientists and professionals in other fields,
brought me to the point such that prolonged refusal could not but leave me interiorly
culpable of intellectual dishonesty and irresponsible rejection of a gracious
invitation to create room in my life to contemplate an important gift – a
seemingly impossible artifact but very real and so enthralling.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~05~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
5.ENTHRALLING
IMAGE: SAGA OF AN IMPOSSIBLE ARTIFACT
1) Facts and puzzles: The
proposition, “Facts call for interpretation” rings to the ear as an almost
axiomatic pronouncement. When an extraordinary object presents itself to us,
our intellect gets provoked as it were, to find a place where it fits within
the intellect’s general picture of things. The Shroud is no exception. It comes
to us as a set of remarkable data to be explained. But, unlike most of the things around us the
Shroud, tangible and visible though it is, seems to elude all efforts to
exhaustively explain. Many believe that this is the cloth that wrapped the body
of Lord as he lay in the tomb. While that offers the easiest explanation to it,
the Shroud still remains enigmatic, revealing itself as a mystery, that could
leave anybody enthralled for its complexity and simplicity. When I read about
it the first time the year 1985, I was captured by its dignity yet felt
overwhelmed by a sense of doubt. When I finally saw it in 2000 during its
public exposition, I was enthralled even the more. Now all doubt is gone with just
one big question left on my mind: Can mortal human flesh comprehend the reason
why God willed to make the Shroud that wrapped the body of his Son as he lay in
the tomb, with a touch of his divine artisanship such that no human can
replicate it even today?
2) Opportunity for all: By just starting from the consideration of God’s
divine goodness towards the human being, it is possible to understand that this
God could allow the Shroud to come into existence even for the sake of those
whose faith is not very strong. The weak ones can make use of it. It might be
the case that the Shroud will not lead every agnostic to conversion but, it is
interesting to hear stories of people who were far away from the faith but have
eventually been attracted to the truth of the Gospel through their encounter
with the Shroud. Even those whose faith is strong enough can still make use of
the Shroud. On the next page we shall
see the two consecutive popes of our time, John Paul II and Benedict XVI
praying in front of the Shroud. Their
decision to venerate the Shroud on their knees speaks volumes to their
onlookers.
3) Like the sign of Jonah: As Pope John
Paul II said, “the Shroud is a challenge to human intelligence”.
Before it, the mind can carry someone to the limits. A thought about the
meaning of Jesus’ words presents itself.
It is written in the Gospel of Mathew, “Then some of the scribes and
Pharisees spoke up. ‘Master’, they said ‘we should like to see a sign from
you’. He replied, ‘It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a
sign. The only sign it will be given is
the sign of the prophet Jonah’”. (Mt. 12:38-39). Biblical scholars and exegetes
have good explanation of the meaning of these verses. But if the Shroud eludes the explanation of
science, would it not be legitimate to consider it as the thing that in its own
way fits in as the sign of Jonah – an object in the order of man’s concrete
experience pointing to the inscrutable power of Jesus? It would make anyone
think that, in his boundless goodness, Jesus had in his design something good
even for an evil and unfaithful generation, calculated to wake them up from
their stubbornness in their unbelief. Jesus cares even for someone who is
inclined to close his eyes at him. For those who see Jesus’ sign in the Shroud,
only a simple step is needed. Jesus said
to his followers “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to
myself” (Jn 12:32). While it is obvious
that the man of faith does not need the Shroud as a foundation of his or her
faith, it might probably be argued that, for someone else whose faith is cold
and faltering, the Shroud has the chance of bringing at least some amount of
warmth into those fading shadows of it that are there. Such an effect cannot be counted too
negligible.
4) My take: While in Rome, when time came for me to write my doctoral thesis as a
concluding statement to my philosophical search for the truth, I felt strongly
urged to connect my statement to the Shroud. So, I formulated the title of my
thesis and took it to our professor in Research Methodology hoping that if he
accepted it, I would ask him to be my moderator. My proposal was: The
Hermeneutical Aspect of the Shroud of Turin. The professor turned it down for the reason
that he was not sufficiently informed about the Shroud to moderate it
responsibly. Then I decided to change my topic. The new topic was this: Some
Recent Insights in the Philosophy of the Other. What prompted my second
choice was my conviction that the Man in the Shroud could be seen as a
sufferer for others. I proposed this topic to Professor Rev. Fr. John
Battista Mondin, the Philosophy Faculty Academic Dean. He accepted the topic
and agreed to be my moderator. As the work went along, Mondin enjoyed what I
wrote. Being aware that my doctoral thesis was not directly addressing the
Shroud, I made sure reference was made of it all the same in my word of
dedication. So, I formulated the first sentence of the dedication of my thesis
like this: “To all those who in order to know the truth seek His Face
without losing heart”. By the
words “His Face” I meant the countenance of the one whose representation
we all see in the enigmatic Shroud of Turin. After publication of the thesis,
Professor Mondin made a step further and arranged with some official in the
Vatican that I could take a copy of my thesis and present it to the Holy
Father, Pope John Paul II. I knew he liked the Shroud. It was great joy for me
when the plan materialized.
5) After gazing at the Shroud: So if in
a way my Doctoral thesis could be regarded as my first response to my gaze at
the Shroud, the second one would soon later be my publishing of my first two
books about it in Kiswahili namely (1 Uso: Utafiti Kuhusu Uwezekano wa
Picha ya Kifo cha Kristu and 2) Sanda ya Torino: Zawadi
Kumbukumbu) while the third is the thought of seeking the ways and
means of Building KWAUSO Secondary School in Bukoba Diocese. When some four
years ago I was asked to record a word on video in Italian about the way I look
at the Shroud, I cited this school as a concrete attempt in response to our
gaze at the Shroud describing the project as: “Il dopo lo sguardo alla
Sindone” (A sequel or a response to the gaze at the Shroud”). By that I intended to bring out the idea that any authentic encounter
with the Shroud will not leave the beholder unchallenged to go out and have
something crucial changed in their inner life and do some kind of compassion to
the honor of the Man we see in the Shroud, so serene, inviting and attractive,
as will be seen in the following section.
6)
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~06~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
7)
Pope
John Paul II kneels in prayer before the Shroud.
Pope Benedict
XVI
While aware of being keeper of the keys entrusted to St. Peter and
charged by the Lord with the mandate to strengthen his brothers in the faith,
each of these consecutive popes of the digital age in his own turn venerates
the Shroud: Pope John Paul II (first picture above) and Pope Benedict XVI
(second picture above). Both can be seen on different occasions kneeling in
prayer before the Shroud. Any thoughtful person could ask themselves: Why
this? Surely the Popes are not stage
actors. The message their veneration of the Shroud is supposed to send is
definitely something more than anything light. The implication is that, far from risking becoming heretical, the
believer who seriously holds the Shroud as an object with a lot of meaning in
his/her faith life enjoys encouragement from the highest guardians of the faith
who regard the Shroud worth of such profound veneration.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~07~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
7. SERENE
FACE OF GREAT MAJESTY IN DEATH
1) No product of human imagination: History has it that for the earlier part of
its recorded existence the Shroud appeared as a piece of cloth on which was
imprinted a mysterious face image. The
cloth was referred to as the Mandylion while the image was given
a descriptive name “Acheiropoietos” a term meaning
“not made by hands”. The acheiropoietos looked like an image of a human face
but probably the people then, like us today, did not know exactly how it had
come into being or how it could be replicated by the technology available to
them.
Researchers in the history of the Shroud now
found in Turin agree that the ancient Mandylion and the Acheiropoietos are one
and the same thing as Shroud of Turin. Looking at the face in a photographic
negative, the contemporary viewer is able to see what the ancient counterpart
was unable to decipher. With the tools available to us we can see the man in
much greater clarity and detail. The
face is of a true human being, serene in death.
2) Image of a real human being. When science first examined the Shroud image the discovery was that:
this is a real human being. It was the atheistic anatomy professor Yves Delage
who as a professional confirmed this. It is not a painting but a real image of
a human body. Many medical experts after him including Pierre Barbet and Robert
Bucklin concur that the image is anatomically correct. It is in no way a product of human art.
The
man we see in the Shroud has undergone a violent death. The face itself is beaten and bruised. It has
been harshly treated. Yet, contrary to
every expectation of a person that has been so ill-treated, his face remains
serene even in death bearing no sign of accusation of his torturers. All and
everything forgiven. As we behold this face, the words of Jesus ring back to
our mind: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing”. (Lk.
23:34). In this image, we see the lips that would have uttered such words. Our
mind is led to think of him who was transfigured on Mount Tabor in the presence
of his disciples and “his face shone like the sun” (Mt 17:2).
2) A poet before the Shroud: I love James Brabazon’s words
cited by Ian Wilson: (Cf. The Shroud : Fresh light on the 2000-Year-Old
Mystery,
Bantam Press, Corgi edition 2011. p. 381.
“This was the look of him? This down-to -earth
man?
This convinces me. None of the flimsy faces
The painters put on him. “This man never arrived,
At resurrection without a hard-won fight,
Nor was half air before he achieved ascension.
With him he took a look of the earth he lay in –
Rock, and little soil, and old olive roots –
A sturdy, serene man, common sense in a riddle.
He looks like his talk, before it was pared by
parsons,
Spun into sermons, and so on, transtabulated
Into theology.
This man is marvelous –
Death instinct with life, life at peace,
This is
man.”
3)Astounding
serenity: The serenity in the face of this man, despite
the suffering he has gone through is in itself a miracle in its own right. It
is a miracle that humanity cannot allow to simply fade away into oblivion. It
is a miracle of mercy in a portrait that could always serve as a reminder to
all of us of Jesus’ story of his self-emptying act for the sake of sinners, as
the next essay will tell.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~08~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
The Shroud face, as seen in the Shroud.
The Shroud Face as seen in a photographic
negative.
Archetype of drawings and artistic renditions of
Jesus’ face.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~09~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
9. HIDDEN MYSTERIES IN A PRE-MODERN ERA SELFIE
1) A zipped treasure of hidden information: The Shroud is like a
zipped treasure of information about a unique event in the history of
mankind. It is a puzzling selfie that
disturbs the person who holds it to be such.
That it is a selfie is too obvious to debate. For in the first place there is no doubting
that here we have a true image of a human body that is wrapped in the cloth.
The image is imprinted onto the cloth from within, thus excluding the
possibility of someone else acting from outside to cause it and make it appear
the way it is seen. To make things appear even more stunning, the individual
who is “photographed” is lying there with all marks that confirm his death at
the moment of the snapshot. So, it is a selfie of a material body, occupying
space in time like all bodies do. But then an imponderable question seems to
force itself in: If this is a selfie and a selfie of someone who lies in death,
is the selfie from our side of life or from the other? Simply stated: Is the selfie a supernatural
one or natural. If it is a natural selfie, we shall need an explanation. If it
is a supernatural one, all questioning may be closed.
2) A selfie before the birth of technological
imaging: All those
who looked at the Shroud before May 28, 1898 the night when the advocate
Secondo Pia took the pictures with his camera, the image on the Shroud appeared
as an inexplicable shadow of a human form on a linen cloth. The truth that this
image is comparable to a photographic negative up to a certain extent came to
light as Secondo Pia’s photographic plates went through the normal film
developing process in his dark room. There took place an inversion of color
such that the black/dark points on the Shroud turned white/bright in the image
on the plate, while the white/bright points on the Shroud now became
black/dark. Meantime, the lateral inversion caused by the lens of the camera in
projecting the light from the Shroud onto the glass plate produced its normal
consequences whereby the clearly visible and definite body form in the plate
image appeared all opposite to the shadow on the Shroud. The left side on the
shroud went to the right in the picture on the glass-plate. But it is worth
noting: Blood marks on Shroud that appear darkish on the Shroud now appear
whitish on the glass-plates as expected in a normal black-and- white
photograph.
3) Most striking properties: The STURP team main photographer for the 1978
120-hour non-stop examination of the Shroud, Barrie Schwortz identifies a
number of striking properties. To grasp the precise scientific meaning and
implications of these would require explanation by a competent expert in the
fields of photography, physics and chemistry. What we can do for the purposes
of this book is simply mention some of them.
i) The Shroud image is of a monochromatic
coloration. (cfr. www.shroud3d.com)
ii) Superficiality:
“the image is present only on the uppermost two or three fibrils of the
threads.
iii) No directionality. This excludes the
possibility of an artist drawing the image by using a brush. A brush stroke
during the painting would have left some indication of movement from point to
point.
iv) X-Ray properties. Study indicates that
the formation of the involved more than the visible light because it reveals
some information of things even beneath the skin of the body which suggests
energy that was capable of penetrating the body unlike the ordinary light.
v) Absence of outlines. One does not clearly see where the image
begins and where it ends.
vi) Anatomically correct. This is a
property that “excludes a process of image-formation by direct contact”.
vii) Imageless areas. Tests indicate that
in the areas of blood there is no image. This is interesting in that it shows
that the image was formed after the blood was on the Shroud and not vice-versa.
viii) Stability: The image does not
dissolve or disappear under heat, water and ordinary solvents.
ix) 3D information is encoded in the image. Unlike all drawings
or camera made photos, the Shroud image contains mathematical information that
can help the researcher to determine the distance between any point of the body
wrapped in the Shroud and the Shroud. Consequently, it is possible to determine
accurately the shape and size of the body of the man in the shroud. Hence,
after meticulous work Professor Giulio Fanti in collaboration with his team of
scientists was able to reproduce a statue of the Man who was wrapped in the
shroud in 2018; a man who evidently had been executed through a Roman style of
crucifixion as will be seen in the next essay.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~10~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
(2) Picture of the Man of Shroud as seen in the
VP8 Image Analyzer. First seen by the Physicists Dr. John Jackson and Eric
Jumper in 1976.
The 3-D information encoded in the Shroud image
enabled Professor Giulio Fanti and his team to create a perfect statue of the
Man of the Shroud as seen above.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~11~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
11.
ROMAN CRUCIFIXI0N HINTED BY A
COIN OF CAESAR TIBERIO
1) Designed for slaves and notorious criminals: The Man in the Shroud died a violent death by crucifixion. A nail is used to fix one extended arm onto
a crossbeam and then another nail for the second arm. The beam is known as the patibulum.
The condemned is made to lie and extend his arms over the patibulum. The
nailing of the arms to the patibulum is done while the wooden plunk lies down.
The nails are hammered mercilessly through the wrists at a point known as the
Space of Destot. By experience and expertise Roman soldiers knew that fixing
the man on to the beam with nails through the writs eliminated all risk of the
crucified slave or culprit falling off the cross. This beam together with the man fixed onto it
would be lifted and joined to the vertical piece already secured in the ground.
The result is a kind of T- formation.
The vertical piece was called the stipes. The condemned could remain hanging there as
long as he managed to breath. This death was meant for slaves and notorious
culprits, people who had no civil rights, rebels and traitors.
2) Capital punishment by crucifixion: Though lavishly used by the Romans crucifixion was not invented by them.
Crucifixion came from the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians and the
Carthaginians. Alexander the Great is known to have used crucifixion
extensively in his ambition to expand his empire. Seemingly the Romans copied
this kind of execution from these cultures and started using it the third
century B.C. It is thought by scholars such us Pier Baima Bollone that this
method of killing was designed to avoid the mental trauma of killing a fellow
human being face to face.
3) A refined methodology of crucifixion: This evolved over years of use such that the
executioner would know precisely how to do the dirty job successfully also
incorporating the extra details of increasing or diminishing the amount of pain
that the victim would be subjected to. For such purposes for example
crucifixion by nailing, a method that ensures more intensive pain before a
faster death might be taken as an option instead of roping the victim on to the
cross which subjects the condemned longer time before death takes over. Even
though, depending on the conditions of the crucified and treatment he went
through, death might delay for even as long as four days. The evangelists
report that Jesus expired in about three hours of his crucifixion. In the Roman empire crucifixion was abolished
by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. The man in the Shroud was
crucified by someone who knew well where the nail must be driven through,
namely the wrist area exactly at the spot anatomy identifies as the Space of
Destot. Hung by the palms the condemned
quickly falls off the cross as the palms are not able to support to support the
weight of the crucified. When the nail is driven through the wrist the body
stays on the cross. But that will damage the medium nerve causing excruciating
pain to the victim. By the same action, the thumb reflexively folds into the
palm. In the case of the Man in the Shroud both thumbs remained in the folded
state till death arrived. They continued folded after the death until rigor
mortis (rigidity of the body organs after death) set in. For that reason,
on the Shroud the thumb is not seen. It is hidden in the palm.
For the Man in the Shroud scourging preceding the
crucifixion. This was not done in accordance with the Jewish law. The Jewish
law did not allow a fellow human being to be beaten above 39 lashes. But the
Man seen in the Shroud was treated more harshly. “If the one who is in the wrong deserves a
flogging, the judge must have him laid on the ground and flogged in his
presence, the number of strokes proportionate to his offence. He may impose forty strokes but no more;
otherwise, by the infliction of more… your brother be humiliated before you”
(Deut. 25:2-3). He would be stripped of his clothes before being fixed on the
cross and left there to die in that state (just as written of Him, Wis
2:20)“Let us condemn him to a shameful death, since God will rescue him – or so
he claims”.
3)
Hint of coin on the right eye lid: When the 1931 picture of the face of the Shroud
taken by Giuseppe Erie was put into the VP8-Image Analyzer by Physicists John
Jackson and Eric Jumper the year 1976 at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, USA (cf. https://www.shroud.com> The VP-8 Image Analyzer) it was realized
that the Shroud image is three-dimensional. Closer observation showed that a
coin-like looking object was visible over the right eyelid. Further studies of
this matter revealed that it was a real coin of Tiberius Caesar, which gives a
hint that this man was given a Jewish burial not earlier than the reign of the
Caesar Tiberius, emperor of the Roman empire from 14-37 A.D. The Roman lepton coin was
minted by Pontius Pilate in the year 29 A.D.
It is the time of Jesus. The presence of the coin is an indicator that
the Man in the Shroud was buried according to the customs of the Jews. To some
extent, the presence of the coin on the Shroud corroborates the contention that
the Man in the Shroud is Jesus Christ whose execution involved a breach of the
Roman law. The Roman law stipulated that someone guilty of something grave
could be punished by beating and be set free after the flagellation. A criminal
condemned to death by crucifixion could be beaten as he was escorted to the
place of crucifixion. Strangely, Jesus served both punishments. He was
subjected to flagellation meant for criminals not supposed to be crucified.
After being scourged, he was also sent to the cross to be crucified as seen in
the following essay.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~12~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Fixing the victim on cross, the nail is
driven No bone is broken. But the
median nerve is
through the Space of Destot in the wrist. damaged causing the
thumb to fall into the palm.
A protruding object over the left eye was seen by
John Jackson and Eric Jumper. It was interpreted to be a coin, minted by
Pontius Pilate the year 29 A.D.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~13~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
13.OVERHWELMING NUMBER OF WOUNDS BY
A TERRIBLE WHIP
1) A showcase of mercilessness: Examining the Shroud image, forensic experts determine that the body of
the victim seen in the Shroud is covered with hundreds of wounds and contusions
inflicted by what they can determine to be a Roman whip. The whips were made so
that at every blow little chunks of flesh could be ripped out from the body so
causing the maximum pain in several points every time the blow landed. Careful
study reveals patterns of groups of these bruises. Further analysis leads to
the inference that the wounds were not caused by random beating. Two Roman
soldiers were involved.
During the scourging the victim’s hands were chained on a pillar.
Standing on his feet the victim took the posture of slightly bending forward
with the back left exposed to the cruelty of the torturers. One of the
torturers worked from the left of the victim while the other one stood on the
right. Seemingly each of the soldiers enjoyed the freedom to do the beating
without a fixed limit of blows he could give. Jewish law prohibited beating a
fellow human being beyond 39 lashes. But
the body of the victim in the Shroud is covered with very many scourge marks
which permits a count of not less than 120 blows. According to some experts including Professor
Giulio Fanti most accurate count set the number at least 370 signs of wounds on
the Shroud resulted from the beating. At the end of the scourging the victim’s
body was completely lacerated with wounds.
2)The flagrum taxilatum: An instrument of
torture, variously known as the flagrum taxilatum or plumbum
is a Roman scourge designed to inflict the most terrible pain to the
victim. Several ropes (say two or three)
or leather straps are tied on a handle at one end. At the loose end of each of
these is tied a bone of an animal like a sheep or metal spike. The metal ending
is capable of causing two contusions or openings in the skin of the victim.
3)Why this? The scientist
who is capable of counting the number of the blows this Man endured is probably
not able to give us the answer as to the justification of all this brutal
treatment from what he observes in the laboratory. Yet any person with a normal
heart cannot fail to wonder why all this happened to this man. The believer
will think of seeking for the answer from the prophecy of Isaiah which says:
“Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing,
Ours the sorrows he was carrying,
While we thought of him as someone being punished
And struck with affliction by God;
Whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions,
Crushed because of our guilt,
The punishment reconciling us fell on him,
And we have been healed by his bruises” (Isa. 53:
4-5).
Those dreadful
instruments were designed for a purpose. They were not simply used to kill but
to torture and humiliate the victim. They were meant for slaves and
non-citizens. In a joint paper about this point is noted by Flavia Manservigi
and Enrico Morini that “The Roman criminal law distinguished those who could be
flogged: in the age of the Republic, Roman citizens were protected by specific
laws, which forbade to carry on scourging against citizens…unless the crime was
very serious, like in the cases of betrayal of the fatherland…patricide,
attempt to restore monarchy… Violence against Vestal Virgins” p. 4 (in
Footnotes) cf. www.shroud.com PDF The hypotheses about the Roman Flagrum:
Some Clarifications by Flavia Manservigi and Enrico
Morini at the St. Louis Shroud Conference
October 9th-12, 2014.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~14~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
(The Roman whip: Flagrum taxilatum – Plumbum …)
- A terrible Roman whip was used to flog this man.
Its name: Flagrum taxilatum
Two
executioners beat the man. The taller one was on the left of the Man. He
concentrated his whips on the upper part of the body. The shorter executioner was on the right. His
beating mostly went to the lower part of the tall victim.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~15~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
15. UNPACKING THE CASE OF A MAN SIMILAR TO THE BIBLICAL INRI
1)INRI:
The acronym INRI was created from the words
written by Pontius Pilate to summarize the information regarding the identity
of the crucified Jesus and the reason for his punishment. It is the Identity Card of Jesus. As the
scriptures attest, “Pilate wrote out a notice and had it fixed to the cross; it
ran: Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews” (Jn 19:20). It was inscription was
in Latin “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum side by side also in
Hebrew and Greek for all to read and grasp the gravity of alleged crime of the
crucified. John, the eyewitness, recorded the allegation as written by Pilate
who passed the judgment, while the truth of the matter would be vindicated by
history and the Shroud is a zipped account of what actually took before and
after the execution of judgement. Studying the Shroud is like unpacking the
entire case.
2)Who could
this Man be? The number of serious scientists and professionals of
impeccable integrity who in their respective fields of specialization have
studied the Shroud either directly or indirectly is huge. Even if they do not
all agree that the Shroud is the actual burial cloth of Jesus, the majority of
them admit that there is a lot in the Shroud that corresponds to what happened
to Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Bible. True searchers for the truth in
the world of objectivity, these personalities affirm what their technique shows
them and refrain from asserting what their methodology fails to support lest
their word should mar their credibility. These people are neither naïve nor
credulous. What they affirm today, their present doubter will defend tomorrow
if the latter cares to abide by the rules of objective inquiry. For that
reason, it is neither common religion nor any shared ideology that binds them
together in handling their findings about the Shroud. No wonder, they range
from agnostics to religious believers; from disinterested atheists to convinced
theists of all creeds and denominations. When all these come together, their
differences of beliefs notwithstanding, they speak the same language. They will
all say “Yes” if it is “Yes” that is to be said, and they will say “No” if it
is “No”. In the event that some of them find themselves saying “Yes” while
their colleagues are saying “No” they sit together to examine the root cause of
their variations and determine whether the matter is “Yes” or “No” for both
parties. So it goes because truth is one. And the truth makes them free.
3)Doors
unlocked to science:The first credit will probably go to Secondo Pia a
professional lawyer who as an amateur photographer took the first photos of the
Shroud image in 1898. It is these
pictures that revealed to the world of science that in the Shroud there was
hidden something more mysterious than meets the eye. When shortly later the
pictures fell under the scrutiny of the French atheist Ives Delage, professor
of Anatomy at the Institute of Sorbonne in Paris the signal was made known that
the time for science to come in defense of religious truths had practically
ushered in. For Ives Delage, the
anatomist credited for the first identification of the presence and function of
the semicircular canals in the human ear, the Man of the Shroud is none other
than Jesus Christ of the Gospels. Ives Delage was led to this conclusion by his
three-year study of the anatomy of the Man of the Shroud. This confession was a
shock to his fellow atheists. It was too bold of a pronouncement that exposed
him to the danger of being evicted from his office at the Institute. Yet,
despite all the risks, Ives Delage stood his ground.
But
what did Ives Delage see in the Shroud as an accomplished anatomist of his
time? Most probably not much different from what another French researcher Paul
de Gaul observed: (Cfr. Le Visage de Jesus-Christ et son Linceaul,
(France-Empire, Paris 1972), Tino Zeuli, Jesus Christ is the Man of the Shroud
@ https:www.shroud.com>pdfs
1) The Man of the Shroud was wrapped in a sheet.
2) He
remained there for a short time.
3) He was separated perfectly from the Shroud , with
a technic which has left the imprints of blood clots on the fabric without
flicking or impairing these clots
4) 4) The Man of the shroud was fixed to the cross
with nails…
5) (5) On the Man of the Shroud are seen wounds of a
crown of thorns.
6) 6) “The Man of the Shroud was pierced by a lance
in the right side…
(Cfr. The Shroud of Turin
Website “Jesus Christ is the Man of the Shroud” @ https://www.shroud.com, pdfs).
In the light of all this information anybody who has read the Gospel
narratives of the passion of Christ is left wondering if there could be any
other man in recorded history who could better be identified with the Man in
the Shroud than Jesus Christ himself. So, even at this elementary level of
knowledge the instinctive conclusion is:
The Shroud is a picture that speaks about Jesus who was sent to the
cross by Pontius Pilate and assigned the title, “Jesus the Nazarene King of
the Jews” or for short INRI a title not calculated to honor but to
humiliate him as the next essay contends.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~16~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Above left:
Raymond Rogers, chemist and leading expert in thermal analysis, Accordig to Rogers the 1988 carbon-dating sample was not representative
of the Shroud.
Above, right. Professor Giulio
Fanti who maintains: “I am sure that the Holy Shroud is the very cloth that
wrapped the body of Jesus Christ, the
risen One”.
Prof. Emanuela Marinelli with a shelf of her books. A
world-famous sindonologist Prof. Emanuela Marinelli from
Italy has held many conferences about the Shroud
during the course of which she also spoke about the KWAUSO School
project and solicited funds for the continuation of
its construction from her audience. Doing that, Emanuela was assisted
by Doctor Salvatore Fiaschi, Observo Onlus, Rome.
When Professor Marinelli visited KWAUSO the year 2014
she gave us the precious of a precious gift of the Shroud
Replica for which we have built a beautiful Shrine at
KWAUSO.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~17~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
17. DEATH AFTER
HORRIBLY EXCRUCIATING AGONY AND HUMILIATION
1)Dead for sure: Pathological
studies carried out by many physicians and specialists in the field of medicine
including Yves Delage, Pierre Barbet, Pier Baima Bollone, Sebastian Rodante,
and Robert Bucklin and many others still concur that the man of the Shroud is
dead. Signs of his death include rigor mortis of his members;
presence of post mortem blood, a heart pierced by a lance (called “lancea”
in Latin) that was thrust into the chest as he hung upon the cross leading to a
flow of blood the heart by gravity followed by water looking blood serum.
3) Humiliated
for being good: On the whole the punishment was calculated to
humiliate the victim. The humiliation is attested by the bush of thorns on the
head meant to ridicule him as king wearing a crown and the very fact that he
was suspended on the cross. To intensify the mockery, he was crucified by using
nails through the wrists and feet to make him feel all the possible pain that
could be inflicted on a living human flesh with a healthy and properly
functioning nervous system. And yet, here is the man who abhorred all evil both
moral and physical so much that while he walked the streets and pathways of the
towns and villages of the people who did this to him, he could not bear leaving
their requests for healing unattended. Which cripple did he not enable to walk?
Which blind did he not restore to sight? Which hungry person did he not feed
for no cost and so on…? Yet, this is the man who died accused but for none of
his fault; the man who was denied of everything possibly acceptable.
Some medical experts such as Dr. Pierre Barbet
contend that one of the signs of the sufferings this man went through was a
psychic trauma. That dreadful thought about the impending suffering was so
intense that profuse sweat mixed with blood escaped from his sweat pores
drenching his skin. Medical language
calls it haematidrosis. Variously called Hematohidrosis or hemidrosis it
is physiological process that could be described as “a condition in which capillary blood
vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood, it
occurs under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress” (cf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
For the concrete case of Jesus, Luke the
Evangelist writes: “In his anguish he prayed even more earnestly, and his sweat
fell to the ground like drops of blood” (Lk 22:44). This occurred in the garden
of Olives before the arrival of the guards who came to arrest him. What
followed that can be found in Gospels. Forensic studies confirm that the
sufferings and the pains he was brought to bear from the beginning till the
moment he breathed his last had no limits.
4) All alone: Jesus’ accusers spat on his face to show their opinion of him as a
despicable being in front of them. Some blindfolded him and asked him to tell
who beat him. The passers-by laughed as he sagged out of pain on the cross.
They dared him to come down from the cross as his pain became more and more
unbearable. They rejoiced seeing the man who had fed thousands of people with
bread in a deserted place and changed water into the best wine at a wedding in
Cana of Galilee failing to get a drop of water quench his thirst. There he was:
all alone and desperately abandoned and helpless. Yet, here is the man whose
movements from place to another were marked by throngs of people desiring even
to touch his clothes. But now, no good of him was remembered. He was so humiliated.
The man whom crowds had contemplated to make king is now covered with insult.
The Shroud suggests that the Man we see in it has been greatly humiliated and
has gone through terrible suffering. In the face of the similitudes between the
two cases, the researcher will be interested in finding out if there is any
identity connection between them. A study of the provenance of the pollen
grains found on the Shroud on the one hand, and knowledge of the geographical
background of Jesus’ ministry on the other can suggest a not unreasonable
premise to build an argument on in order to establish their common home. The
next two essays examine that question.
5) 000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~18~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Ultra-violet
light enables the scientists to determine that around the wound in the
side there was blood and a serum that fluoresces. The heart was pierced. The
man’s death in the cross is beyond doubt.
On the
cross. Covered with scourge wounds.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~19~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
19. SECONDO PIA’S SUPRISE
PHOTOS AND POLLEN REVELATIONS BY MAX FREI
1) Photographic properties: The event that drew the attention of science to the Shroud
took place in May, 1898 when the by then new technology of photography was
applied to it by Secondo Pia in Turin. It was at the suggestion of a young
Salesian priest Don Nogier de Malijai to King Humberto I of the Savoy Family of
Kings the then legal owners of the Shroud. The occasion was a public exposition
of the Shroud, arranged to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Savoy’s Family
as kings of Italy. The technician to do the job was to be one young man Secondo
Pia, professional lawyer and amateur photographer. Equipped with his
photographic machine, the “camera obscura”, Secondo Pia who had not seen
the Shroud earlier built a stage and performed his first attempt at night
between May 24 and May 25, 1898. Due to the lighting difficulties and other
technicalities, the attempt was not very successful. He was permitted to make another attempt on
28 May. (Cf. The Shroud: Fresh Light on
the 2000-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY…, Transworld Publishers’, 20g11, pp 39-41). Man’s
understanding of the Shroud changed when in the darkroom Secondo Pia saw the
image he had captured on the photographic plates show up as a life-like image.
The image that emerged from the developer was much clearer and more
intelligible than the one that was immersed in it. With the lights and shadows
reversed the new image became true to life.
The news of this spread rapidly as fire over a dry grassland. Many of
those who heard about it doubted their reporters or questioned the integrity of
Secondo Pia that he made a manipulated the chemicals to produce the new image
appearing on the photographic plates. Others concocted all types of accusations
against Secondo Pia for telling the world false information about the Shroud in
the name of photography, a still new technology not understood by everybody.
2)Anatomically correct: One of the people who could not bear to accept the claims was one
professor of anatomy at the Institute of Sorbonne in Paris, France known as
Yves Delage, an agnostic. He demanded for the image for scrutiny. Upon
obtaining them Yves Delage studied them as best as he could and after almost
three years of study, he was led to the conclusion that they were undistorted
pictures of a real human being who had been subjected to a death by crucifixion
after being treated as Jesus as reported Gospels of the Christians. As a
qualified anatomist he observed that the human form images of the Shroud were
anatomically correct. One the greatest achievements in science credited to him
is the discovery of the equilibrium-stabilizing function of the semicircular
canals in the inner ear.
After the findings of Yves Delage had been thrown out, a very competent
surgeon came in. This was Dr. Pierre Barbet who later summarized his findings
in his book, A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ as
Described by a Surgeon where he gives a forensic pathologist’s analysis of
the Shroud largely depending on the evidence as revealed by the Shroud
photographs taken by a professional photographer, Giuseppe Enrie in 1931.
According to him all the information revealed in the Shroud is consistent with
the facts known about the suffering and death of Jesus of Nazareth.
4) Originating from Israel: Much later still, a famous
forensic expert Max Frei Schulzer made investigation of the provenience and
history of the Shroud by determining the geographical regions where the plants
producing the pollen grains that have adhered onto the cloth over the thousand
years of its history grow. By his findings the Shroud now preserved in Turin
could easily be traced back to Jerusalem adding strength to the argument that
the artifact could be traced to the time of Jesus Christ in the first Century
Jerusalem.
Max
Frei found out that on the Shroud there were not less than 56 different kinds
of pollens grains. Of these 17 types grow in Europe. But all the remaining
kinds grow outside Europe. Three quarters grow in Palestine. 16 types grow in
desert places and salty regions. 16 grow in the region of Anatolia and
Sanliurfa (ancient Edessa), Turkey, home of the Image of Edessa/Mandylion after
the death and resurrection of Jesus (arrival during the reign of King Abgar V,
13-50 A.D till 944 A.D when it was received in Constantinople during the reign
of Emperor Romanus Lecapenus (920-944) . 2 types grow in the area around
Jerusalem. There are also pollens of plants growing around Istanbul formerly
known as Constantinople. (Cf. Petrosillo and E. Marinelli, La Sindone, pp.
216-220; B. Bollone, Sindone o no, pp. 211-218). The presence of those pollen grains on Shroud gives strong indication
that some time in its
history
the Shroud must have been in Israel, the place of Jesus.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~20~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
1)
Secondo Pia poses behid his photographic camera. 2)
Pia’s Camera obsura. 3) Photo negative of the Shroud frontal image. 
Above: The Shroud as seen by any viewer in Turin. 
Above:
The Shroud seen in the negative photograph.
Seen for the first time by Secondo Pia in 1898. Discovery confirmed by
Giussepe Enrie in 1933 with better picture due to developed photographic technique.
Some of the different types of pollen grains
identified by Max Frei Schulzer as embedded in the Shroud.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~21~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
21.TRACKING THE PROVENANCE OF THE SHROUD AND THE
SUDARIUM OF OVIEDO
1) Burden of Proof to the Historian: Once the hypothesis that two individuals A and B
are twin brothers has been well demonstrated or proven correct, it is easy to
draw the conclusion that those individuals come from the same mother. It is
like an analytical inference. For years, one of the most difficult puzzles for
the scientific Shroud researcher was to be able to pronounce with absolute
certitude that the Shroud we see in Turin is the very cloth that wrapped the
body of Jesus for burial during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, ruler
of the Rome at the time of Christ. But more and more now, lots of information
has emerged to make the researcher affirm with a comfortable confidence that
the Shroud goes back to the time Jesus. The 100% coincidence of the blood
stains on the face cloth that was lain over the head of Jesus covering Jesus
face as he hung on the cross after his expiration and the Shroud face area
provides one strong argument for the scientist to conclude that at one time the
two covered the same face. That face cloth is known as the Sudarium of Oviedo.
It is preserved in the Cathedral of Oviedo in Spain. Reason supported with
evidence drives the researcher to the conclusion that what we call the Sudarium
of Oviedo is the cloth that St. John reports to have been seen in the tomb
after Jesus’ resurrection. “Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into
the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying on the ground and also the cloth
that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but
rolled up in a place by itself” (Jn 20:6-7). It is interesting to note that, in
the tomb, this cloth “was not with the linen cloths… but was rolled up in a
place by itself”. This clarifies what we see: The enigmatic image is found
on the Shroud alone. The face cloth (Sudarium) that was not in proximity with
the body of the deceased does not have the image. But since it is known that this cloth has
been in Oviedo since the sixth century, it is easy to conclude that the
Shroud’s history goes at least as far as that time. The burden of proof to
contradict the confidence that the Shroud cannot not have been created in the
medieval times remains thrown to Carbon-dating technician.
2) Ancient indicators: For the major
part, practically all of the evidence available about the most probably
provenance of the Shroud when I first became aware of the existence of it was
leaning to the time of Jesus’s earthly activity which is the first part of the
first century. Everybody could infer
that the great historian Ian Wilson sees the matter that way too: “Throughout
the greater part of this book we have put together a reconstruction of two
thousand years of the Shroud’s history that is more comprehensive and more
complete than anything done before.
Nevertheless, it is just that, a reconstruction, based on one simple
premise: that the cloth we know today as the Shroud of Turin, which surfaced so
mysteriously in France in the mid fourteenth century, is one and the same as
the Image of Edessa, which began its life in Jerusalem in AD 30 and disappeared
from Constantinople in 1204” (Ian Wilson, The Shroud: Fresh Light on the
2000-year-old mystery…, p. 370). So, the research Ian Wilson has made goes
to suggest that the Shroud is traceable to the time of Christ.
3)Science still remains a human tool: For a long
time, the world of Shroud researchers was waiting for a reliable pronouncement
from archeology about the age of the artifact.
But it was not easy to get. The most reliable method of determining the
age of an archeological artifact of organic origin was based on the spontaneous
radio-active decay phenomenon of Carbon-14. Unfortunately using this method
demanded destruction of quiet sizeable amount of sample for the test. For that reason, even though the method
(discovered by Willard Libby in the 1940’s)
was theoretically feasible and sufficiently reliable it could not be
used for the Shroud. To use it, a large piece of the Shroud would have to be
destroyed to determine the age of the remaining part. Common sense alone could
not allow that to happen. Once the artifact is destroyed, it is gone. We remain
with our memories. But the world needs
to keep the Shroud rather than determine the date of something no longer in
existence. So, research had to be patient till the time when technology of
dating was fine enough to require a very small sample. Such a method was
finally discovered in 1977 under Professor Harry Gove of Rochester. It is
called AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry). Unfortunately, when it was used to determine
the Shroud’s age in 1988 amid errors of protocol and sampling, the results
reached were a total fiasco.
4)Confirmatory
evidence – Sudarium of Oviedo: But there is another strong evidence, ancient and still in existence.
This is a piece of cloth known as the Sudarium of Oviedo. This is like a
handkerchief; a face cloth or “sweat cloth”.
It is believed to have been wrapped around the head of Jesus between his
death and burial. It is preserved in the Cathedral of Oviedo in Spain since the
seventh century. The Sudarium of Oviedo measuring 83 cm x 53 cm is a cloth that
wrapped around the head of Jesus’s body as the body was transferred from the
cross to the tomb. The numerous blood marks from the bruised face of Jesus and
the fluids flowing from the nose were caught onto the cloth forming a map of
their origin. Comparison between the
marks on this cloth and those found on the face image of the Shroud leads some
experts to the conclusion that the two must have covered the same face. It is
claimed that not less than 90 points of coincidences can be confirmed through
meticulous application of an overlay technique. The difference between the two
cloths is that on the Shroud there is the mysterious unpaintable image which
does not show up on the Sudarium. Otherwise, the blood/fluid marks on both
coincide exactly. Since the Sudarium is known to have been preserved and
venerated in Oviedo and has been Carbon-dated around the year 700 A.D. A
further conclusion is that all that being true, the Shroud must have been in
existence around the year 700 A.D. as well. Further evidence of this is that
the blood on both clothes is of Group AB which is rather rare among the European
races but rather more common among the people in the Middle East. Both clothes
remind us that we are dealing with clothes that tell a story of the cruelty of
human beings against fellow human beings. More of this follows in the next
essay.
The Mandylion comes to Edessa by the disciple of
Jesus Addai (Juda Thadeus) to Abgar V. ( Note: The picture seen on the
handkerchief in the image below is a drawing. The actual Mandylion looked like
a shadow).
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~22~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
The Sudarium of
Oviedo (Face cloth), (by courtesy of Alfonso Sanchez Sanchez Hermosilla).
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~23~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
23. A VICTIM OF
TORTURE AS ATTESTED BY THE HIGH LEVELS OF BILIRUBIN
1)Testimony
of untold torture: One of the team members of STURP that went to Turin to make the most
thorough examination of the Shroud was an American Jew known as Barrie
Schwortz. While going there, he like many of the team members, believed it would not take more than just a few minutes to shown that the Shroud
is a work of human hands. The actual testing proved them too presumptuous. In his many conferences and presentations of
his experiences about the Shroud he never tires telling people that while it
did not take long for the scientists to see and confirm that the image on the
Shroud is not a product of human art and the many tests that were carried out
pointed to the confirmation that the Shroud was not a fake. Still one observed
element held him from acknowledging that the Shroud was authentic for not less
than 17 years after the 1978 tests.
The
stumbling block was the redness of the spots and areas supposed to be blood
marks. The reason for that doubt was
eliminated when Allan Adler one STURP blood expert revealed to him that what
accounts for the redness of the blood was the high level of a substance called
bilirubin. The red marks were not paint. It was true human blood. Test to
establish the presence of hemoglobin come out posit. Tests for porphyrin, an
essential component of blood come out positive.
Now, blood experts know that bilirubin is formed and secreted in the
blood owing to various causes including extreme torture. For some reason,
bilirubin prevents the blood caught into the fabric from darkening. Even by
looking at the marks left behind by the wounds and the lacerations on the body
of the man in the Shroud it is not difficult to understand that he was brutally
tortured. Owing to that traumatic condition, secretion of bilirubin in the
blood was inevitable. Owing to the presence of bilirubin, that blood could not
lose its natural redness when it seeped into the cloth and dried there as
normal blood behaves.
2)Medieval forger excluded: The discovery of the bilirubin effect on the
Shroud is strong evidence that the man we see in the Shroud was really
tortured. Secondly, it allows the researcher to refute with good reason any
claim that some unknown medieval forger could have created the image by taking
the Shroud sheet and smeared on it in the most natural places human blood of a
tortured victim in the most accurate way and superimposed the image over the
blood marks. Observation shows that in
fact the blood was on the cloth before the image went there. Beneath the blood
marks there is no blood. Moreover, the bilirubin effect on the blood was not
known in the medieval times. For that reason, a forger at that time would never
have thought of torturing a human being to obtain blood containing bilirubin in
the calculation of convincing a twenty-first century scientist, who noticing
that blood on the fabric still remains red would be forced into the deception
that the image on the Shroud really belongs to a human male that was tortured
as Jesus is said to have been treated. We are left wondering what gain the
forger expected to receive from the scientist or the world, after his trick
would have caught somebody in the trap of deception many centuries after the
forger himself would have died. On the whole, the medieval forger would have to
include in image true details which were unknown to people of his time such as
a photographic negative before photography itself was invented; he thought of
embedding pollen grains onto the Shroud to convince the twentieth century
investigator that in order to reach Europe in his time the Shroud must have
travelled all the way from Jerusalem leaving traces of where it passed by
embedding the local pollens of its passage within the fabric.
3)In conformity with what Christianity teaches: Christianity does not pretend to deny history
that Jesus suffered. On the contrary Christianity holds Jesus’s suffering a
fundamental element in its interpretation of Jesus’ mission. The Nicene Creed
says “I believe in one Lord, Jesus
Christ… For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven … For our
sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day…”. The Shroud retells what happened to Jesus so
well that some thinkers have been prompted to call it “the fifth Gospel”.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~24~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
(Left) The face image on the Shroud appears as a natural photographic
negative. (Right) The photographic process inverts the colors in that natural
negative swapping the darks with the brights thus making the negative appear the positive.
Then image enhancement technique is applied to the apparent negative
making the blood marks stand out red against the unbloodied areas of the image.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~25~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
25. NOT A PAINTING
NOR A SCORCH YET EVOKING PILATE’S ECCE HOMO
1) The Holy Mandylion: Historians of
great fame including Ian Wilson contend that there are scattered pieces of
evidence that in the early centuries of Christianity there was a mysterious
cloth, Mandylion, on which was imprinted an inexplicable image, an acheiropoietos
(not made by human hands). The fact that the cloth was conceived to be such
implies that the image lacked the properties we always associate with drawings.
Shroud historians further hold that this image must have been one and same
thing as the Shroud of Turin which bears a mysterious image of Jesus, the man
whom Pilate introduced to the hostile crowds after he had him brutally scourged
with the words, “Ecce Homo, that is “Behold the man”. Pilate introduced
Jesus to the blood thirsty crowd before
condemning him to death by crucifixion. He had done his job of getting him
scourged terribly even though he had failed to see any wrong in him.
After its arrival in Edessa this mysterious image came to be known as
the image of Edessa. Edessa was an
ancient town located in the country of Turkey where the present town of
Sanliurfa stands. There, it was widely
venerated as an holy object. It was given the name “the holy Mandylion”
(agion Mandylion), then “the image of Edessa”. Cf. Ian
Wilson, The Shroud: Fresh Light on the 2000 -Year Old Mystery… pp
.233-234. With regard to the question
how it came to Edessa, to begin with, a 100% perfectly recorded information is
not available. But a considerably reliable oral tradition existed that the
cloth could claim its roots in Jerusalem. Evidenced narratives maintain that it
was one disciple of Jesus known as Jude Thaddeus (Addai) who not very long
after Jesus’ resurrection brought the cloth to Edessa and presented it to the
reigning King Abgar V. Behind the reason of the journey of the cloth from
Jerusalem there was an interesting legend that said this:
At that time Edessa was ruled by King Abgar V a contemporary of Jesus
even if the two lived in different places. Now, while Jesus was proclaiming his
message of the Good News to his co-nationals and working miracles of all kinds
in his homeland, King Abgar had a health problem. Some sources say that Abgar
was suffering from advanced leprosy and was not able to walk normally while
others speak of a different illness. In short, Abgar needed some medical
intervention which all efforts had failed to access. Then, at one point of
time, news reached the king that somewhere in Palestine there was a powerful
prophet called Jesus who was teaching and performing miracles of all kinds,
healing the disabled and even raising the dead. At this news Abgar sent an
emissary with a letter to Jesus, asking him for the favor of coming over to
Edessa to cure him. He even made a promise that, after curing him, Jesus would
be awarded permanent permission to reside in his kingdom and enjoying the
privileges of proclaiming his message with impunity wherever he wanted in
Abgar’s kingdom. The emissary went to Jerusalem and delivered the request to
Jesus. The legend goes that, in response, Jesus said that he was unable to
travel over to Edessa at that time, but promised to later on send his disciple
to have the king healed. The emissary drew the face of Jesus on some material
before returning to the King bringing with him Jesus’ response to Abgar plus
his drawing.
2) Later: After Jesus’ resurrection and
ascension one of Jesus’s disciple known as Addai (Jude Thaddaeus) went down to
Edessa coming from Jerusalem. He reached the city gate and holding high a
framed mysterious image showing the face he was led to the presence of the
King. On beholding the image, the King stood up in all reverence to receive it
and was healed instantaneously to the amazement of everybody throughout Abgar’s
kingdom. News of the miraculous cure spread like fire everywhere. Abgar,
together with all the members of his family, relatives and the citizens in
general converted to Christianity. Subsequent history would see the building of
a dignified reliquary to house the inexplicable image that distinguished itself
from any other art-work, and henceforth to be venerated.
All those who saw it were unable to understand how it might have been
formed. It did look like any artistic product.
Puzzled by its formation mystery the people gave it the descriptive name
“Acheiropoietos” which means “not made by hands”. Historians
regard this object one and the same thing as the present Shroud of Turin. The most thorough tests that modern science
has made show that the Shroud image is neither a painting nor a scorch. This
confirms the accuracy of the earlier descriptive name “acheiropoietos” an
image that did not involve anything to get formed: no colorant of any sort;
neither dye nor ink whether liquid or gaseous; no heat - nothing at all from
outside itself.
3)The STURP team of scientists: These came to Italy in 1978 hoping to be able to show that the image
was a paint of some kind. They went home
admitting that their 120-hour round the clock investigation supported by eight
tons of the most modern equipment left them unable to answer the question
concerning the image formation mechanism. The excellent team comprising some of
the best experts in the corresponding disciplines bound together not by their
faith but sorely by their common desire to know the truth as scientists left as
they came. All the same, they had seen something: An inexplicable image of a
Man like the Gospel Jesus who apparently ended up by being humiliated, crushed
and cut off as the next essay shows.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~26~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
“Ecce homo”
“Behold the man” (Jn 19: 5).
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~27~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
27. D ERIDED,
MOCKED, SCORNED, FLOGGED, CRUSHED AND CUT O FF
1)Evidenced
in the Shroud: The painting on the previous
page shows how Jesus was derided. Images by artists depicting Jesus’ derision
abound in art history (example at Caravaggio in North Italy). In the Shroud
science sees a man who has undergone derision, mockery, scorn. Here is a man
who has been flogged, crushed and cut off just exactly like Jesus of the
Gospels.
As sindonology
is a multi-discipline science. It is probably comparable to a large edifice
fitted with tens of windows, of different size each capable of allowing in
light when it is open. So, biblical
exegesis is one of those windows. It has its own role to play. It can allow in light when opened. For that
reason, it is not inconsistent to allow the biblical exegete to say something
about the Man of the Shroud. So, while the various windows of the physical
sciences remain open to bring light into the question of how the Shroud image
might have been formed, the large window of the exegete that is supposed to try
to give the meaning and interpretation the Shroud needs to be left open as
well.
Biblical exegesis knows that Jesus has undergone derision, mockery,
scorn, flogging and
humiliation. The Man of the Shroud does
not seem to have received a different treatment.
2) Derision: “Some of them started spitting at his face, hitting him and saying
“Play the prophet” “He was blindfolded and beaten, and then mocked, Prophesy!
Who hit you?” Lk 22:63. Jesus was
stripped of his clothes. “And they stripped him and put a scarlet cloak round
him” (Mt. 27:28).
3)Mockery: Mark the evangelist describes Jesus’ mockery like this: “The soldiers
led him away to the inner part of the
palace, known as the Praetorium and called the whole cohort together.
They dressed him up in purple, twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on
him. And they began saluting him, “Hail, king of the Jews”. They struck his
head with a reed and spat on him and they went down on their knees to do him
homage” (Mk 15:16-19). The torturers smashed a bush of thorns onto his head in
the most brutal fashion, calling him King of the Jews, which the Jews standing
there were not pleased to hear. “And having twisted some thorns into a rown
they put this on his head and placed a reed in his right hand. To make fun of
him they knelt to him saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews. And they spat on him and
took the reed and struck him on the head with it” (Mt. 27:27-31).
4)Flogged. “As you can see, the man has done nothing that
deserves death, so I shall have him flogged and then let him go”. (Lk
23:15b-1). That was said by Pilate. Flogged for no fault. Killed brutally
despite his innocence.
5)Cut off: Looking well at the image in the Shroud, it is difficult to miss the
cognizance that this is the man Isaiah was talking about when he wrote the poem
that later scholarship came to identify as the fourth song of the servant of
God who after mockery, scorn and flogging was crushed and cut off. “Forcibly,
after sentence, he was taken. Which of his contemporaries was concerned at his
having been cut off from the land of the living, at his
having been struck dead for his people’s rebellion?” (Isa. 53:8)
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~28~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~29~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
29. SIDE PIERCED BY LANCE WHILE BACK LACERATED BY
SCOURGES
1)Pierced
in the side:The side of the man of the Shroud was pierced by
a sharp object causing a puncture in the chest of the crucified man that
measures 4cm. This was the average width of Roman lancea (in Greek lonche)
in surprising agreement with Prophet Zecharia’ prophecy regarding the Messiah,
“They will mourn for the one whom they have pierced as though for an only
child” (Zac 12:10). The spear was thrust into the side between the fifth and
six ribs of the body of the man hanging on the cross, dead. At the piercing of
the side blood and a light blood serum, a fluid which the man who does not
speak medical language could call “water” came out. This is what happened to Jesus as John the
evangelist testifies. “When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead,
and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a
lance; and immediately there came out blood and water” (Jn 19: 33-34).
2)Legs
not broken: Forensic experts affirm that the blood visible
on the Shroud that must have flowed out of the wound in the side was
post-mortem blood unlike the blood that came out from other wounds such as the
bleeding following the puncturing of the head blood vessels in various points
when the bush of thorns was pressed on it.
Most evident of this is the Greek Epsilon-letter shaped blood flow stain
(like an inverted 3) seen on the forehead of the man.
The
heart was pierced to ascertain the death of the victim. It is because, when
decision to accelerate the death of the crucified men by breaking their legs (crurifragium)
was reached, it was considered no longer necessary to break Jesus’ leges as
they had done to the other men crucified with him, as he was already dead. But
they needed to be 100% certain he was dead to be able to give an accurate
report to the Governor, Pontius Pilate that the capital punishment he had
pronounced was duly executed. So, they pierced his heart as the ultimate proof
to exclude every chance of a pretended death. According to Christian tradition,
the job was carried out by the centurion, Longinus by name.
3)Crurifragium: The act of breaking the legs (crurifragium)
was normally used to accelerate the death of the condemned in two ways. In the
first place, the breaking of the legs was accompanied with a faster loss of
blood. With more blood loss the chances
for the victim to keep alive diminished. Secondly, with the legs unbroken, the
victim could remain hanging there for hours and hours waiting in agony for the
arrival of his death thanks to the possibility inhaling and exhaling. The body
oscillated between being supported by the spikes in the feet and being suspended
on the nails in the wrists even if at the cost of unbearable pain in the hands
and the feet. Doctor Pier Baima Bollone describes the terrible scenario of the
suffering of the man crucified when the crurifragium has not yet been done (cf.
Pier B. Bollone, Sindone o No, p.13). Standing on the nail in the feet the man is
able to breath. But the pain in the feet is so terrible. Owing to that pain and
fatigue the crucified is forced to relax his body a bit by suspending his body
on the wrist nail. In that lower posture asphyxia invades and the victim must
raise up himself by pushing his body again against the foot nail to gain some
breath. Hence the victim sags on and off. As time passes the periods between
foot support and wrist suspension become shorter and shorter. Breaking the legs
puts an end to all movement paving the way to the inevitable death.
4)The
Shroud in the light of Isaiah’s prophecy: Looking at the Shroud through the eyes of Science
one senses a striking congruence between what happened to the man wrapped in
the Shroud and the pain expected to befall God’s suffering servant as foretold
by Isaiah: “I have offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those
who plucked my beard; I have not turned my face away from insult and spitting”
(Isa. 50:6). The back of the man in the Shroud is covered with scourge marks,
testifying the savagery of he endured. The spiked metal balls or rough animal
bones at the end of the whip to torture him left his whole back lacerated.
The scourge by which the skin of this man was
lacerated; the nails by which he was fixed on the cross through his feet and
his wrists and the lance, by which his heart was opened, were man-made
instruments at the service of human brutality.
We shall see their images on the following essay.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~30~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Above is a picture of
the Roman speak called “lancea’
in Latin and lonche in Greek).
Above: Roman nails
Above, left: Frontal image. See four top triangular patches. The third
patch counting from left of the image horizontally is surrounded by a blood/
serum mark. All of these patches were sown their by the Poor Clares in 1534 following the 1532 Chambery fire. The right image is a close-up of that
area. The red is blood. The less dense
shade is blood serum which fluoresces in ultraviolet light.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~31~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
31.ACCREDITED BY TRADITION AND DEFENDED BY THE AGNOSTIC
1)
Interface between faith and science: The Shroud could rightly be considered as a shared interface between
faith and science. It is a meeting point of a wide range of interdisciplinary
inquiries all of which aim at understanding what it is and what it means. On
the one hand this event “challenges human intelligence” to use the
expression of Pope John Paul II, which among other things sends the message
that there still remain mysteries to be pondered about it. But while more
studies continue to delve into its mystery, there is no denying that for
centuries the Shroud has been accredited by tradition as the burial cloth of
Jesus. The believer can see it as a sign
of one most important historical event, namely the suffering, death and
resurrection of Jesus. And this sign is powerful enough to wake up the agnostic
to the consciousness that, after all, even the believer has a tangible reason
to offer in defense of his position and it would not be accurate to relegate
the entire body of his faith activity to a blind leap into the dark. An
open-minded scientist will not be offended by discovering a truth in his field
of research that supports what the believer holds. For example, though agnostic
Yves Delage, an impeccable professor in anatomy who after three years of
studying the Shroud photographs taken by Secondo Pia in 1898 did not hesitate
asserting his conclusion that this artifact belongs to Jesus. He did what a
true scientist ought to do. Only a scientist of doubtful integrity could say “A
is not equivalent to d” when all the evidence available shows that “A and d”
are equivalent. And there are many people who were formerly agnostic but have
been drawn to faith by the Shroud.
2)A
sign of contradiction: Ironically, while the Shroud receives support as an
unquestionable witness of the historical Jesus of Nazareth from agnostics and
great experts such as Barrie Schwortz who, to use his expression “have no horse
in the race” some people of great learning who believed in Jesus in the past
found it impossible to associate the Shroud with him. Examples include Bishop Pierre de Arcis of
Troyes who regarded the Shroud to be a forgery and went as far as writing a
letter to the Pope those days denouncing the authenticity of the Shroud.
In an unsubstantiated
memorandum to Pope Clement VII, Bishop Pierre de Arcis cited his predecessor
Bishop Henri of Poitiers claiming to have known the artist who had cunningly
painted the Shroud. Strange enough, that artist is not mentioned while the present
age technology declares the Shroud a work not made by human technology. Another
highly learned cleric, who tried to use everything in his possession to
contradict the Shroud’s authenticity was a priest, Chevalier Ulysse an
accomplished professor of history at Lyon University. Between 1899 and 1903
Chevalier Ulysse is known to have written not less than 50 articles trying to
persuade the world that the Shroud was a hoax. But, all summed up, the
overwhelming evidence in the possession of contemporary science and technology
is in favor of the Shroud. (cf. www.medievalshroud.com, The
medieval Shroud; Ian Wilson, The Shroud, pp. 142-150).
Just as science can distinguish between
visible and invisible light both of which enable the same man to grasp
different aspects of the same universe without distorting its integrity, the Shroud event can enable man to appreciate
the truths and importance of the visible and the invisible realities in the
created order of existence without sacrificing the purity of our knowledge of
the realities that are.
3)Biblical
exegesis: The Shroud is acknowledged by exegetes as a burial
cloth of a man whose death accords with the Gospel description of the death
that was endured by Jesus of Nazareth. Meantime, science also affirms that the
Shroud records happenings that point to what is known to have happened to this
same Jesus. Which means that in the Shroud science and faith can stand together
speak the same language. In order to understand the Shroud, science practically
feels bound to consult faith, while in turn faith consults science to be able
to interpret the Shroud adequately. In the Shroud science and faith do not
simply meet to listen to the same messenger, which is the Shroud itself, but
also each to testify that the same substance is the content of their ultimate
conclusion, which is the whole meaning of the Shroud and its revelation of the
one eternal truth – Christ, the key to all inquiry. The next section will examine what the so far
only direct in-depth study of the Shroud STURP in 1978 came out with.
The Gospels narrate that the centurion at the head of
the cohort that implemented the death sentence of Jesus is the soldier that was
commissioned the nasty task of piercing the side of Jesus to make sure he was
dead. Tradition identifies the soldier as Longinus. Upon finishing the job “the
centurion, together with the others guarding, had seen the earthquake and all
that was taking place, and they were terrified and said, ‘In truth this man was
the son of God’ (Mt. 27:54).
Jesus was already dead when one soldier pierced his side with a spear.
From the wound gushed out blood and water. Blood and water marks on the Shroud appear
around the area where the spear pierced the side. (Below): The spear went in between the fifth and six ribs opening heart.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~33~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
33.UNSOLVED BY THE TEAM OF STURP SCIENTISTS AT SAN
GIOVANNI
It has been mentioned earlier on, a highly refined team of scientists
and scholars comprising of the most serious seekers of the truth as it reveals
itself to humanity through the objective method gathered at the Turin Cathedral
of San Giovanni (St. John the Baptist) to carry out the most in depth
scientific investigation of the Shroud ever after months of preparation and
rehearsal back home at the 1978 public Exposition of the Shroud. Their team was
called STURP for The Shroud of Turin Research Project.
2)
Distinguished knowledge seekers: This group of very
competent and best equipped scientists worked on the Shroud for 120 consecutive
hours after the 1978 public exposition examining every smallest part of the
Shroud. True seekers of knowledge, these men do not know how to take anything
for granted nor accept a claim untested. The basic problem they wanted to
answer was how the image on it was formed. Like true knowledge warriors, they
meant to do a thorough job till the right answer was obtained. Failing to get
an early answer they extended their time in keeping with their wise protocol
over three years. After the most intensive scrutiny of the samples, they had
taken home for thorough multiple re-examination and re-assessment, they were
forced to admit by the sheer facts that their combined study had left them more
confounded by the Shroud mystery than before.
The best well equipped brains had gone to Turin to solve the image’s
formation puzzle. They came back with a mass of data indicating several
characteristics of the Shroud image that made them admit not only that the
image was inexplicable but also that its formation was even more mysterious
than they all had thought it to be. One might probably say that their hopes to
hit a solution had bounced back at hitting an Acheiropoietos /an
image not made by human hands. The extreme superficiality of the image on the
topmost fibrils of Shroud and the absence of capillary flow of anything into
the Shroud material excluded use of the brush by a painter to do the work. Absence of any sufficient traces of chemicals
or colorants of any form also pointed to the improbability of human art being
responsible for the image formation. There is nothing coming from outside the
Shroud that will have produced the image. It is the perfectly uniform change of
color of some outermost fibrils of the Shroud threads that will have taken place
to leave the negative image on the surface - an inconceivable phenomenon to the
people who will have seen it first and still remains irreplicable by modern
technology.
So, in short, the team came out
with a negative knowledge of the Shroud than otherwise. All that their efforts
enabled them to know is what the Shroud image is not instead of what it is.
They could confidently affirm that it is neither a scorch nor a painting.
Donald Lynn, one of the STURP members claimed that from the point of the laws
of science, this image is not supposed to be there and yet it is there.
The team carried out numerous non-destructive tests including “electron
microscopy; photography at various wavelengths, front and back; UV
spectrophotometry of fluorescence; X-ray fluorescence and absorption
radiography; thermal photography; mass spectroscopy; laser-microprobe Raman
spectroscopy; attempts to alter color on fibers using acids, bases, oxidants,
reductants and organic chemicals” (cf. The Mysteries of the Shroud of Turin,
The American Society for Nondestructive Testing, https//www.linkedin.com). They
all worked intensively for five days and nights wasting no minute while
determined to come out with the key to the secret of the mystery. But at the end of all their efforts they
admitted their failure to reach a definite solution.
3)The
sharpest blunted: This is how
the STURP put it in their own terms: “The scientific consensus is that the
image was produced by something which resulted in oxidation, dehydration and
conjugation of the polysaccharide structure of the microfibrils of the linen
itself. Such changes can be duplicated in the laboratory by certain chemical
and physical processes. A similar type of change in linen can be obtained by
sulfuric acid or heat. However, there are no chemical or physical methods known
which can account for the totality of the image, nor can any combination of
physical, chemical, biological or medical circumstances explain the image
adequately…We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real
human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist.
The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and also give a positive test for
serum albumin. The image is an ongoing mystery and until further chemical
studies are made, perhaps by this group of scientists, or perhaps by some
scientists in the future” Cf. Shroud.com/78concl.htm.
The
Teams failure to come out with the answer of the question they had set out to
answer was not due to the does not point to their incompetence but the
complexity of the question. Living at a distance of almost 40 years from the
time of their tests, present day technology is still incapable of giving us a solution to one of the challenges embedded
in the Shroud which was discovered the year 1976 Professors John Jackson and
Eric Jumper two years before commencement of their tests. This is the image’s
three-dimensionality which will be touched in the next essay.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~34~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Back of the Shroud Scourge marks on the back of the Shroud
in realistic drawing.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~35~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
35.THREE
DIMENTIONAL INFORMATION ENCODED IN THE IMAGE
1)Unique property: Working at Sandia Laboratories in 1976 two friends John
Jackson and Eric Jumper fed a picture of the Shroud of Turin into a special
machine called a VP-8 image analyzer and were stunned by what they saw. This
analog computer was invented by Pete Schumacher in 1972 (https://www.shroud.com). It was “designed for evaluating x-rays and for other
imaging purposes…”/ It “converts image
density (lights and darks) into vertical relief (shadows and highlights). When
this device was used to read the shroud image by the physicists Dr. John
Jackson and Dr. Eric Jumper, unlike all the normal images, the Shroud image
came out showing clear reliefs and lower points depending on how far the linen
cloth was from the respective part of the body wrapped within it. At this
observation these physicists understood that the Shroud image was a unique
image embedding features that are not to be found in any of the conventional
pictures or drawings.
The
variations depended on the intensity of the image such that the points of the
body that were closer to the linen appeared darker than those which were
further removed from it. This means the relative distances were encoded into
the image. A relevant inference is also in place, namely that the image is not
formed by contact. This means by meticulously mapping the distances determined
according to the darkness or lightness of the image it was possible to create
three-dimensional object appearing as a human form. The observation gave them
the clue that mechanism involved in creating the Shroud image the distances
between the sheet and the body were taken into account. By the same observation
the possibility of the image having been formed by contact or painting by means
of a dye or chemical of some sort was eliminated.
The
discovery ignited these friends’ curiosity and they thought of forming a team
of capable person to investigate how the image might have been caught onto the
cloth. That was the root cause of the
birth of The Shroud of Turin Research Project, abbreviated as STURP.
2)Deeper formation mystery:
In discovering the three-dimensional property of the Shroud image told the
physicists that the image was formed at a distance and not by direct contact.
(cf. http//:shroud3d.com) “The density of the image is proportional to the
distance between the body and the cloth”. Which means that, for example, the
image of the tip of the nose which most probably was closer to the cloth
wrapping the body is more intense than the region of the orbit of the eye which
was more distant from the cloth at the formation of the image. It ought to be
borne in mind that the intensity of the image does not indicate that the
fibrils that got changed became darker than the other fibrils. Each and every
fibril that was affected changed to the same degree as every other fibril that
changed. Greater intensity is observed in the places where more of the fibrils
were affected.
3)Deeper mystery greater revelations: Secondo Pia’s discovery that the Shroud image
had photographic properties was a very big leap in getting to know the richness
of information it contained. Through that discovery a great secret was opened
to mankind. Man was enabled to behold again the real features of the Man of
Shroud for another time in almost two thousand years. And now the discovery that this image
contains three-dimensional information was another big leap of technology that
enabled the world of science to bring to light what he really was in his body
occupying space. Professor Giovanni Tamburelli in Italy wasted no time in 1978
to work out a computer image suggesting topographical relief rendering of the
face and the whole body of the man. But probably the climax was to be reached
through the work of the team of scientists under the direction of Giulio Fanti,
Associate Professor, Department of
Industrial Engineering, University of Padua in 2018. The statue this team came out with is shown
on the following page. Fanti said, “This is the three-dimensional
representation in actual size of the man of the Shroud, created following the
precise measurements taken from the cloth in which the body of Christ was
wrapped after the crucifixion”. He added, “Therefore, we believe that we
finally have the precise image of what Jesus looked like on this earth. From now on, He may no longer be depicted
without taking this work into account.” Joshua Gill, Aleteia, 2018)
http://dailycaller.com.2018/03/208>
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~36~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Above: Three-dimensional image of the face worked out by Prof. G. Tamburelli.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~37~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
37. HEAD CUPPED WITH THORNS FOR ABYSMAL PAIN
1)For abysmal pain: Examination of the dorsal image of the Shroud corresponding to the back
of the head there are numerous marks of blood. Forensic expertise understands
from these marks a scenario where the head of the man who was lying on that
part of the Shroud was covered with blood that had flown from different spots
of the head. That is good indication
that the whole head was punctured with objects, which suggest helmet-like bush
of thorns.
2)Crowned like Jesus and none other: In recorded history there was only one Man who
was crowned with thorns. This is Jesus of Nazareth. Traditional artists have
always depicted the head of the crucified Jesus with a round crown of thorns.
The image on the Shroud shows the reality of what really happened. The soldiers
who thought of humiliating Jesus as King of the Jesus (Rex Iudaeorum) by jeering at him with a crown were not
interested in decorating the man they held to be the worst malefactor even if
for no reason they knew. They wanted to scorn him and let him suffer the most
abysmal pain possible. Nothing harsher could have achieved a better punishment
for them than a bush of roughly spun branches of thorns, hit merciless into the
scalp. It is thought that the crown of thorns which Jesus wore was the jujube
tree, whose botanical name is Ziziphus spina-christi (http://en.m.wikipedia.org). From the punctured parts flew the blood only
to meet the long hair of the man finally ending up in the mark formation that
can be observed on the Shroud on the area where the head lay.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~38~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
A
bush of roughly woven thorns mercilessly smashed upon his head.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~39~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
39.ENTOMBED
JEWISH STYLE; HIS FEATURES SEMITIC
1)
Finishings: The
execution completed, and the death confirmed by thrusting a spear into Jesus’
side with his head bowed down, there was found no need of carrying out the crurifragium,
in his case. The Shroud shows no marks of the crurifragium. For the
rest one could go by the report of St. John who saw it all happen.
“Consequently, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had
been crucified with him and of the other.
When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of
breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and
immediately there came out blood and water” (Jn 19:32-34). Crurifragium was the
breaking of the lower leg bones normally done to accelerate the death of the
crucified (Cfr. https://en.m.wiktionary.org). A hammer could be used to
do the job. With the lower leg bones broken the crucified hang suspended on the
arms, tied onto the crossbeam (patibulum) by a rope or fixed on
there with a nail. Breathing becomes very difficult and loss of blood compounds
the problem.
Jewish burial
custom observed: Finally the body was taken down from the cross.
It was prepared for burial the best way possible, but in a hasty way as the
Sabbath evening was setting in. cf. Jesus, the Turin Shroud and Jewish Burial
Customs, (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu Volume 45,
Number 1, Winter 1982). Probably science
does not know who this man was. What chance does the believer have to guess who
it is? If we are dealing with the body of Jesus, it is Joseph of Arimathea who
brings a costly sheet of linen fabric of a herringbone twill for a farewell
gift to a friend who has passed. The
eyewitness of these events confirms that another secret disciple called
Nicodemus is there to assist. On his part Nicodemus “brought a mixture of myrrh
and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds” (Jn. 19:38-42). They took the body
of Jesus and bound it in linen clothes with the spices following the Jewish
burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and
in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Since it was the
Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there
(Jn19:39).
The face
napkin that was used to cover his face as he hang on the cross, dead, and had
picked up blood the symbol of life was buried with him as Jewish custom would
not have allowed to throw it. This was
to be seen by the apostles Peter and John on the day of the resurrection as
testified by “the disciple whom the Lord loved”. This disciples says, “Simon
Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths
lying on the ground and so the cloth that had been over his head; this was not
with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself” (Jn 20:6-7).
2) Man of Semitic Features: As for the
features of the man who was buried in the Shroud, to the estimates of the
experts put him between 1.70cm and 1.88cm, most probably taller than the
average man standing close to him (http://en.m.wikipedia.org). The variation
owes to the fact that the image on the Shroud does not have definite
demarcation to show where exactly the image begins and where it ends. But on
the whole what we see in the Shroud is a strongly built man.
Experts concur
that by his looks the man wrapped in the Shroud has semitic features. He has a
long face and wears long his hair. His nose is suggestive of a man of semitic
origin. His blood type is AB positive which is pretty dominant among the
semitic people but not equally common among the other cultures of the world.
In the forest
of controversial information existing around this man where however posotive
hints such as those we have seen in this essay are not less abundant there are
individuals who ask, “Could this be the Man foretold by the prophets? Could he
be the Christ?” But as Fr. Peter Rinaldi once observed there are also many who
will look at the Man in the Shroud and say in their heart and understand that
it is the one. “It is the Lord”. The next essay will dwell on the hint of the
linen which was used for his burial.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~40~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Above is an example of a Jewish tomb, hewn from
the rock just like the one Joseph of Arimathea offered for the burial of the
body of Jesus.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~41~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
41.NEW LINEN APT FOR A HIGH PRIESTLY TRIBUTE
1) New burial cloth just as new
tomb: The tomb hinted upon in the
previous essay was new. The Gospel of John testifies that “At the place where
he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in
which no one had yet been buried” (Jn 19:41). But new also was the Shroud used
for the burial of Jesus. The Gospel of
Mathew adds that it was also clean (Mt. 27:9) The Shroud of Turin has been
described as the world’s most studied artifact. Apparently, it is destined to
attract all eyes and hearts. What accounts for that is its uniqueness. In the
whole world, there is nothing known in art history or technology that could
even remotely be compared to it. Its simplicity as a textile and the complexity
of the image it bears challenge all who look at it. It remains a mysterious
object that yet needs to be contemplated.
Why do the Gospel writers seem to put any
importance that the tomb as well as the burial cloth were new? What message
does the evangelist send by underlining the fact that when used to wrap the
body of this man the cloth was new, clean and presumably not cheap since its
donor, Joseph of Arimathea a wealthy man would have wanted to offer the best
tribute in his ability to his friend.
Ironically, there was something new also in
Joseph of Arimathea after witnessing the death of Christ. For, now we see the
man who earlier on was too cautious not to risk his reputation among his own
people changed. Probably too cautious if not somehow timid, Joseph would
consult Jesus in secret when Jesus was still alive, working miracles and
attracting multitudes to his talks. But,
now the same man gathers the boldness to go before Pilate to ask for the body
of the man Pilate had condemned to death.
In so doing Joseph was like telling Pilate “I remain opposed to the
condemnation you have served to this man”; or like saying in Pilate’s face “The
man you have just sent to death was my very best friend”. For a cautious man
that kind of act was not prudent enough and considering that after all Jesus
was already dead and Joseph had nothing to save the act was not only very risky
but also lacking in the least sense of pragmatic behavior.
2)Symbolic aspect: It is neither its texture nor its weave that distinguishes
and sets the Shroud apart as a unique object.
Textile experts and historians know that fabrics of its kind have
existed for centuries. From ancient cultures we have examples of similar
fabrics and similar weave. While the Shroud is made out of linen, history knows
that linen clothes have been in existence up to 5000 years before Christ. A
sample of linen is cataloged by one British archeologist Rosalind Hall of the
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology (cf. Pier Luigi Baima Bollone, Sindone
o No, “Societa’ Editrice Internazionale, Torino 1990, p. 55). As for the
weave, the Shroud is woven as a herringbone twill (cf. W. Kucewicz, https://leksykonsyndonologiczny.pl “The fabric was created by interlacing warp and weft threads on
the loom, creating a 3:1 weave (known as
herringbone”).
Those who hold the present Shroud of Turin to be the
burial garment of Jesus will not find it difficult to see in it a kind of
continuation of Jesus’ seamless garment claimed by tradition as the robe that
Jesus wore all the time since his childhood which might be interpreted to stand
as a symbol of Jesus’ enduring faithfulness and timeless constancy. While
celebrating the Holy Mass, priests wear seamless garments called
“Chasubles”. A chasuble has no sleeves,
so it can allow the hands to move freely pointing to the inner freedom they
enjoy as they offer sacrifices to the Father.
In the Shroud the eternal priest manifests a prototype garment
symbolizing that freedom. He can raise up his hands to offer to his eternal Father
the sacrifice of his own self in atonement for humanity.
But for the
believer there is also another symbolic element to the Shroud. At the present
the Shroud’s color could be described as a sepia. Owing to its age it has taken
up a yellowing, like the originally white clothes we know that were much whiter
in the past than what they are today. One could say that originally the Shroud
looked less yellowish than it is today. And right there, the Christian believer
will do well to remember the following words from the Book of Revelation:
“Anyone who proves victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes”
(Rev. 3:5). Though condemned to a shameful death as a criminal, the Man in the
Shroud was dressed in a white robe for his funeral to underpin his victory and
innocence. Just as Isaiah had prophesied, “He was given a grave with the
wicked, and his tomb is with the rich, although he had done no violence; had
spoken no deceit” (Isa. 3:9). Therefore, among other things, the Shroud speaks
about innocence, a virtue that cannot be buried forever. Happily enough, the obtaining
circumstances were such that on a temporary burial could be offered as the next
essay will show.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~42~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
“The Cross
Received the
Living Jesus and Gave Him back to Us Dead.
The Shroud
Received the
dead Jesus
and Restored Him to us Alive”.
Blessed Sebastian Valfre
(129-1710).
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~43~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
43.TEMPORARY BURIAL IN THE LAND OF
JUDEA
1)Time and
location: The
caption to this essay implies at least two important questions, namely that 1)
whether the burial of the Man in the Shroud was planned to be temporary and 2)
and whether that it took place in Judea.
The answers are not too obvious even if not impossible to get. To respond to the first question, knowledge
about the burial customs of the people where the burial itself took place is a
must. The implication is that the answer to the second question could serve as
a key to the answer to the first question.
There are good historical hints that the
Shroud was used in Judea. The pollen grain studies of Max Frei Schulzer point
into that direction even though, alone, cannot establish definitively that the
burial took place there. The more enlightening piece of information is the
identification of Jerusalem soil particles in the place of the knees. (Cf. Essay # 19 page 29 above). When the
condemned fell down under the weight of the cross the knees got torn at hitting
the ground and picked up particles of soil which later transferred to the
Shroud when the body was wrapped in it for burial. Tests suggest that the soil
on the Shroud around the area of the knees could be from Jerusalem. That would
suggest that the incident took place in Judea.
After that, knowledge about the Jewish burial customs can enlighten us
whether the burial was complete or temporary. Close examination of the body in the
Shroud suggests a temporary burial in a sheet evocative of the linen cloth that
the Gospels attest to have been supplied by one secret friend of Jesus, Joseph
of Arimathea, “a prominent member of the Council who himself lived in the hope
seeing the kingdom of God” (Mk. 15 :43). Judging by the evidence from the
Shroud, the blooded body of the man who died by crucifixion and pierced by a
sharp object in the chest while still hanging on the cross, was quickly
prepared for burial and laid on this long cloth. Pollen studies and the soil
particles identified on the Shroud corroborate the assumption that all this
took place in Judea. Head towards the center of the sheet and feet close to the
end of the long sheet, the man was placed on the sheet on a flat surface facing
up. The second half of the Shroud was
then folded over the body which was subsequently carried into the tomb,
apparently hewn in a rock. The painting captured by Della Rovere on the
following page can aid the imagination to conceptualize what the wrapping of
the body of the Man in the Shroud could have looked like.
2)Blood first
and image later: From
the first moments of the body contact with the Shroud blood from the scourge
wounds must have started to map their shape onto the Sheet. Understandably, the
Shroud image was not yet there. The
implication is that, whoever looks at the Shroud today should grasp that the
blood marks from the wounds pre-exited the mysterious photographic resembling
image on the Sheet. The blood marks are older than the image even if by a few
minutes or hours. This affirmation is consistent with the observation, by the
researchers, that the image formed on the sheet later than the blood marks.
Consequently, if any other particles of blood were to be discovered on top of
the image one would be forced to conclude that the body continued to exist in
contact with the body even after the image had been formed, thus forcing the
scientists to think of another theory of the image formation besides those that
command the greatest chance of probability today. Otherwise, the best
explanation in place implies that after the formation of the image on the
Shroud the body that was wrapped in it was no more. It seems to have vanished before the planned
secondary attention to body could be performed.
About
Jesus, the Gospel of John has the following to say: “They took the body of
Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial
custom” (Jn. 19:40). According to the
Book of Exodus, the vestments of the priests were to be woven from linen. “They
made the tunics of finely woven linen for Aaron and his sons, the turban of
fine linen, the head-dresses of fine linen the breeches of finely woven line,
the waistband of finely woven line embroidered with violet purple, red-purple and
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~44~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
crimson
as Yahweh had ordered Moses” (Ex. 39:27-32).
For an idea about what this kind of cloth really was like, we may have
to look at what extrabiblical sources have to offer us.
3)Lucky linen: Pier Luigi Baima Bollone says that linen was used in
different regions of antiquity including Egypt, Palestine and parts of Asia. He
cites Herodotus confirming that linen was used especially by the priestly
families in Egypt (cf. Pier Luigi Baima Bollone, Sindone o No, pp. 55-57). But linen used for this burial was
destined to something unique. As the next essay will show, this is the sheet
that captured the image of incorruptibility.
Above is a painting
by Della Rovere depicting the preparation of the body of Jesus for burial.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~45~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
45. INCORRUPTIBILITY SNAP-SHOTTED ONTO THE LINEN
1)
Memorial snapshot of incorruptibility: It looks like the tomb
assigned for the temporary burial of this victim became a chamber for a
memorial snapshot of an extraordinary ending of the story of the man wrapped in
the sheet. Here is the point where science keeps its silence while faith picks up
the pride to speak about the resurrection. By an explosion or bolt of light
that defies description, that body escaped from the limitations of time and
space leaving behind on the Shroud an icon of its incorruptibility that
generations would describe as “not made by hands” or the Acheiropoietos. That tremendous burst of light gave to
the world the original of all Christo-centric icons and images of Christ which
present themselves as resembling attempts to depict the earthly looks of the
incarnate Son of God, immortal and eternal.
In the Old Testament every attempt to make curved images was forbidden.
But in the event of this light, the Lord himself who assumed human flesh, so
that human beings can see him and touch him, and hear him deigned to create his
own image by his own authority so that posterity might even see his earthly
features.
2) Inconceivable - Unidirectional light in a dark
chamber: If the thought of a bolt of
light coming from the body that was wrapped in the Shroud commands any
consensus, it would be necessary to infer that this emission of radiation took
place inside the tomb where the body was placed. In a way, that tomb was transformed
by the event into a photographic-like chamber or a camera that witnessed the
taking of a snapshot of the marks of the suffering endured by the Man seen in
the Shroud. Due to the limitation of its scope, science does not have in its
vocabulary the word “resurrection”. For that reason, science
cannot possibly describe that snapshot as a witness of the resurrection. But,
probably outside the laboratory, the believer can as well be tempted to use
that term if he/she so wishes without fear of being contradicted by science,
which does not know what that word really means in the language of
quantification of reality.
3)Itemized receipt of a ransom: From the strictly objective point of view, the Shroud
is a bearer of a scientific witness of a mystery while from the
extra-scientific perspective it carries a mass of information that irresistibly
awakens the beholder into a kind of religious feeling and indebtedness to
Christ’s incomparable love. After his long meditation of what the Shroud is,
Russ Breault who has studied the Shroud for not less than 30 years, has come
out with some accurate image of the Shroud of Turin. Aware that the Bible sees in Christ the man
who has ransomed us, bought us, redeemed us or purchased us with his blood,
Breault comes out with the inference that in the event of Jesus’ vicarious
death for the salvation of mankind a transaction has taken place. But wherever
there is a transaction, a receipt is always in order as a sign of recognition
of the exchange and as a testimony to all. Consistently,
Christ’s ransom deserved a receipt. Breault argues that in the Shroud we meet
that testimony. The Shroud could be regarded as an itemized receipt of the
price that has been paid to accomplish the salvation of mankind. (Cf. YouTube
interview with Russ Breault, President and Founder of the Shroud of Turin Education Project,
EWTN, Shroud Exhibit Bible Museum, Washington, 2022).
4)Zipped
visual narrative of the passion: The Shroud comes to us as a
snapshot of Christ’s passion from start to the very end. What we find recorded
on the Shroud is more than a still picture. The many hours of time encompassing
the suffering of Our Lord are as it were frozen into an infinitesimally short
moment and then recorded in visual form.
As a result, we find ourselves standing before a
detailed report of things that took place before and after determinate periods
of each other. And our mind is challenged to grasp it all at once. So, for
example we can see in the Shroud the moment of Pilates’ pronouncement that
Jesus will be scourged at the pillar, Roman style and then his later
condemnation to death, and the carrying of the cross, then his torturous ascent
to the hill of Golgotha, his falling down on the road, his crucifixion, his
agony on the cross and so on.
5) Praises to the Passover Victim: An old Catholic hymn “Victimae paschali laudes, immolent Christiani”
(Let Christians offer sacrificial praises to the Passover victim) makes reference to the Shroud as one of the testimonies of
the resurrection.
Dic nobis Maria, Tell
us, Mary
quid vidisti in via? What
did you see on the way?
Sepulcrum Christi viventis, I
saw the tomb of the living Christ
et gloriam vidi resurgentis, And
the glory of his rising,
Angelicos testes, The
angelic witnesses
Sudarium, et vestes. The shroud, and the clothes.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~46~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Prof. Giulio Fanti
whose words have been used for the Preface of this book sees all these things
and much more through the ultra-modern tools and throws the whole weight of his
scholarship on it saying: “The Shroud is a divine gift; a symbol of the
Resurrection”.
The women who went to the tomb of Jesus very early in
the morning of the resurrection.
Prof. Emanuela
Marinelli visited KWAUSO bringing with her a
gift of a Shroud
Replica for us in 2014. Above pictured with Fr. Stanislaus on the
shore of Lake Victoria.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~47~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
47. CARBON-DATED
MEDIEVAL IN 1988 BY A TEST NOW DEBUNKED
1)
Carbon-dating: a scientific instrument in human hands: While just a
few people were aware that on April 21,
1988 a piece of cloth was cut from
the Shroud, then sliced into smaller pieces and distributed to three
laboratories of international fame, namely Zurich of Switzerland, Tucson in
Arizona and Oxford of England, to serve as samples for Carbon-dating tests by
one very reliable method called Accelerator
Mass Spectrometry or AMS for short,
the whole world was suddenly bombarded by the news media on October
13, the same year, that the Shroud had been dated medieval by
the three laboratories. I was in Rome
that day. My interest in the Shroud had grown big. The announcement of the
Medieval age was a shock to many people over the globe. To many, me included,
who had sensed something very particular in this object, that day was sour. And
there was no way of changing the news to something sounding better. In the past
there existed a well-known proverb: “Roma locuta, causa finita”. But now
something similar was born “Scientia locuta, causa finita” to imply that
once science has made its verdict, further discussion is closed. The world
found itself standing before what was presented to it as the final verdict
about the origin and destiny of Shroud. Seemingly the enigma of this object
might be solved by an easy explanation as an artisan forgery, produced by some
unknown genius who must have executed his unrepeatable masterpiece sometime
between 1260-1390 leaving behind neither sign nor signature of his/her
identity.
2)The reactions to the announcement: Reactions were not everywhere uniform. While
many people who had a good knowledge of Shroud doubted and questioned what they
heard from the news, millions of people who either had not taken sufficient
time to delve into some sufficiently deep study of it welcomed the news as a
great discovery of science. Unfortunately, a greater portion of the mass media
took the lead at disseminating the news that the Shroud had finally been
uncovered to be the greatest hoax of all time. People who had never heard about
the Shroud, now had their first time to hear about it and they heard about it
as a faked thing meant to feed the minds of the gullible or the cheap masses of
people who are tuned to stubbornly hang on falsehood even though the truth,
healthy and more human dangles generously within arm’s reach. Yet science could
not be so easily overturned by such simplistic explanation. However, one thing
became very clear, namely that Carbon-dating technology is a scientific instrument
in human hands which do not enjoy error immunity.
2) The damage of ensuing confusion and the prospects
of the will to correct: Serious researchers, including
historians, medical experts and archaeologists, who had spent years of study of
the Shroud could not know how to reconcile the results with the combined facts
available to the world of science from the many perspectives of study and
discipline. True experts in carbon
dating failed to see how these extraordinary results could be maintained
together with whatever else was held acceptable for years till then. Raymond
Rogers, one of the original members of STURP shows that the sample for the 1988
test was cut from a corner that shows reweaving and is not representative of
the Shroud.
It is interesting to hear that after the publication
of the carbon-date age of the Shroud in 1988 published in Nature,
the British Museum did not bring to the scientific public the raw data they had
used to arrive at the controversial date. These were
only made available in 2017 after one scholar, Tristan Casabianca, had demanded
them by citing the UK Freedom of Information Act governing scientific openness
of public authorities. (Cf. https://ico.org.uk>media>g...PDF) from the institutions that had kept them away
from access of other competent researchers. The result was the discovery of a
few inaccuracies of material and procedure sufficient to throw the 1988
announced results several centuries behind
cf. (https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12467). Emanuela Marinelli, Giuseppe Pernagallo and
Benedetto Torrisi were there to corroborate the work.
3)The troubling question: At
one point in his big volume, The 1988 C-14 Dating of the Shroud of Turin: A
Stunning Expose’ 2020, Joseph G. Marino had this to state: “A majority of
scientific and historical evidence proves the Shroud of Turin is the authentic
burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. Only one test says otherwise – the carbon
date performed in 1988… Most people are unaware that C-14 is normally only a
confirmatory test and does not outweigh the accumulation of other
evidence. So how did one test deceive
the world about the most important relic in human History?” (Shroud.com,
Archives 2020). For Giulio Fanti, there is no doubt. The Shroud is the very
thing that was used on the first Good Friday. He maintains, “I am sure that the
Holy Shroud is the very cloth that wrapped the body of Jesus Christ, the risen
One” (Cf. Personal letter of Prof. Fanti to Fr. Stanislaus, 2024). That is how these two authors answer
the troubling question regarding the authenticity of the Shroud. Their opinion
is founded on tight evidence.
000~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~48~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~000
Above: Fr. Peter Rinaldi with a group of visitors .
Left: Barrie
Schworzt, STURP’s official documenting photographer.
He sent me the photo above on June 13, 2024 and died on June 21,
2024.
Please
Lord, Barrie Schworzt served you well. Reward
him together with all the sindonologists who have acknowledged you before the
world with the eternal bliss of beholding your Face.
Right: Professor Giulio Fanti.
A SEQUEL OF GAZING AT THE SHROUD
AND AN
ENSEMBLE OF GRATITUDE TOKENS
“IL DOPO LO SGUARDO ALLA SINDONE”
49.TOUCHED BY AN ICON WITH
INNOCENT BLOOD OF SOMEONE WOUNDED IN THE HEART
1) Pope
John Paul II profoundly touched: Star gazers could find
themselves lost in wonder before the marvels of creation as they scan the star
constellations, the galaxies and the nebulae. But at the end, their persistence
gets them to understand something out of it. Gazing at the Shroud, Pope John
Paul II described what he saw as “an icon of the suffering of the innocent in
every age”. His words summarize the central theme dealt with in this second part
of the book. His gaze at the Shroud prompted him to think of “the millions of
human beings who live in hardship and humiliation on the edges of great cities,
especially in developing countries”. The individual who looks at the Shroud
from a perspective similar to Pope John Paul II, can spontaneously be
challenged to think of a neighbor’s plight. John Paul II was touched by this
icon which is stamped with the real blood of the Innocent One whose side was
pierced by the soldier’s lance. Together with him many thousands or even
millions of people may be equally touched. They will probably think of the
poor, the sick, the victims of social injustice and the like. Jesus spoke about
the enduring chance that such disadvantaged groups will always be there. “You
have the poor with you always” (Mt. 26:11). For that reason, the need to care
for someone in want is here to stay. And consequently again, the relevance of
the Shroud, that awakens its beholder to the consciousness of their obligation
to consider the less fortunate, endures (Cf. Pope John Paul II’s address to
thousands of pilgrims in Turin, during the public exposition of the Shroud.
“The Shroud whispers: believe in God’s love and flee from the misfortune of sin”,
L’Osservatore Romano, 27 May 1998, # 4).
2) Like the
spontaneous response of the crowds on the Day of Pentecost: We read that, on
the day of Pentecost, Peter and the other apostles stood up and spoke to the
multitudes gathered in Jerusalem about the passion of Jesus and the miraculous
defeat of the plans of destroying him. He said, “Men of Israel … Jesus the
Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and
signs that God worked through him when he was among you…This man, who was put
into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God, you took
and had crucified and killed by men outside the Law. But God raised him to
life, freeing him from the pangs of Hades; for it was impossible for him to be
held in its power” (Acts 2:22-24). The people’s response was spontaneous:
“Hearing this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other
apostles, “What are we to do, brothers?” (Acts 2:37).
3)Those
who care to see: In a way, those who care to look at the Shroud in earnest will find
themselves in a similar situation. The section that we have just concluded
dwells on what the scientific researcher sees and says about the Shroud. The
present section will focus on what the believer hears from the researcher and
the Church Tradition; how the facts he has gathered could shape his
understanding of reality and how he decides to respond. Our fundamental
question is this: “Now that we have come to know what has happened to this Man
of the Shroud, what are we to do brothers?” Incidentally, both, the scientific
researcher and the believer could be one and the same individual, the seeker
for the truth – the same individual looking at the same matter only from two
different vantage points.
4)At the
height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the year 2020, the Italian Shroud community
organized a virtual coming together of people from different life settings to
contemplate the Shroud of Turin. Several people were asked to share word about
the Shroud through recorded video over the internet. I too was invited to share
what I had. In my posting I said that,
on our part, the Secondary School called KWAUSO might be cited as a tangible
sign of our response to our gaze on the Shroud. My presentation was in Italian
and I summarized what we have been led to do in the words: “Il dopo
lo squardo alla Sindone” which might freely be translated as “a sequel
of our gaze at the Shroud”. It is just one answer out of a myriad of
options of responding to the inner challenge left behind on the mind that gazes at the Shroud in earnest. It is voiced
throughout the international media that there is no single artifact in
existence upon which so much has been written as the Shroud of Turin. The implication
behind that observation is unmistakable, namely that many authors and
researchers must have been touched by the phenomenon of the Shroud. The purported world-wide interest in the
Shroud would seem to suggest that the Shroud will be one of those artifacts
that cannot be completely ignored. And indeed, those who find time to gaze at
the Shroud in all seriousness, will feel a kind of indebtedness.
5)The
Shroud speaks: This is because the Shroud does not come out to us as a forged document.
The Shroud speaks of a true event, concerning a real human being, in a
situation of dire helplessness, in need of a heart that cares. Addressing
thousands of people gathered in Turin as pilgrims seeking a glimpse of the
Shroud, St. John Paul II said “Whoever approaches it (the Shroud) is also aware
that the Shroud does not hold people’s hearts to itself but turns them to him
at whose service the Father’s loving providence has put it… (The Shroud)
reminds modern man…of the tragic situation of his many brothers and sisters and
invites him to question himself about the mystery of suffering in order to
explore its causes… Before the Shroud, how can we not think of the millions of
people who die of hunger, of the horrors committed in the many wars that soak
nations in blood, of the brutal exploitation of women and children, of the many
millions who live in hardship and humiliation on the edges of great cities
especially in developing countries?” (#3, 4). It can therefore be affirmed that
the Shroud sends a wake-up message to the beholder. The shroud challenges the gazer to do something
for the brother in need of succour or relief. It requires courage to gaze at the
Shroud properly, for doing so excludes the leisure and the freedom of ignoring
the plight of one’s neighbour.
II. A SEQUEL OF GAZING AT THE SHROUD
AND AN
ENSEMBLE OF GRATITUDE TOKENS
“IL DOPO LO SGUARDO ALLA SINDONE”
49.TOUCHED BY AN ICON WITH
INNOCENT BLOOD OF SOMEONE WOUNDED IN THE HEART
1) Pope
John Paul II profoundly touched: Star gazers could find
themselves lost in wonder before the marvels of creation as they scan the star
constellations, the galaxies and the nebulae. But at the end, their persistence
gets them to understand something out of it. Gazing at the Shroud, Pope John
Paul II described what he saw as “an icon of the suffering of the innocent in
every age”. His words summarize the central theme dealt with in this second part
of the book. His gaze at the Shroud prompted him to think of “the millions of
human beings who live in hardship and humiliation on the edges of great cities,
especially in developing countries”. The individual who looks at the Shroud
from a perspective similar to Pope John Paul II, can spontaneously be
challenged to think of a neighbor’s plight. John Paul II was touched by this
icon which is stamped with the real blood of the Innocent One whose side was
pierced by the soldier’s lance. Together with him many thousands or even
millions of people may be equally touched. They will probably think of the
poor, the sick, the victims of social injustice and the like. Jesus spoke about
the enduring chance that such disadvantaged groups will always be there. “You
have the poor with you always” (Mt. 26:11). For that reason, the need to care
for someone in want is here to stay. And consequently again, the relevance of
the Shroud, that awakens its beholder to the consciousness of their obligation
to consider the less fortunate, endures (Cf. Pope John Paul II’s address to
thousands of pilgrims in Turin, during the public exposition of the Shroud.
“The Shroud whispers: believe in God’s love and flee from the misfortune of sin”,
L’Osservatore Romano, 27 May 1998, # 4).
2) Like the
spontaneous response of the crowds on the Day of Pentecost: We read that, on
the day of Pentecost, Peter and the other apostles stood up and spoke to the
multitudes gathered in Jerusalem about the passion of Jesus and the miraculous
defeat of the plans of destroying him. He said, “Men of Israel … Jesus the
Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and
signs that God worked through him when he was among you…This man, who was put
into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God, you took
and had crucified and killed by men outside the Law. But God raised him to
life, freeing him from the pangs of Hades; for it was impossible for him to be
held in its power” (Acts 2:22-24). The people’s response was spontaneous:
“Hearing this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other
apostles, “What are we to do, brothers?” (Acts 2:37).
3)Those
who care to see: In a way, those who care to look at the Shroud in earnest will find
themselves in a similar situation. The section that we have just concluded
dwells on what the scientific researcher sees and says about the Shroud. The
present section will focus on what the believer hears from the researcher and
the Church Tradition; how the facts he has gathered could shape his
understanding of reality and how he decides to respond. Our fundamental
question is this: “Now that we have come to know what has happened to this Man
of the Shroud, what are we to do brothers?” Incidentally, both, the scientific
researcher and the believer could be one and the same individual, the seeker
for the truth – the same individual looking at the same matter only from two
different vantage points.
4)At the
height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the year 2020, the Italian Shroud community
organized a virtual coming together of people from different life settings to
contemplate the Shroud of Turin. Several people were asked to share word about
the Shroud through recorded video over the internet. I too was invited to share
what I had. In my posting I said that,
on our part, the Secondary School called KWAUSO might be cited as a tangible
sign of our response to our gaze on the Shroud. My presentation was in Italian
and I summarized what we have been led to do in the words: “Il dopo
lo squardo alla Sindone” which might freely be translated as “a sequel
of our gaze at the Shroud”. It is just one answer out of a myriad of
options of responding to the inner challenge left behind on the mind that gazes
on the Shroud in earnest. It is voiced
throughout the international media that there is no single artifact in
existence upon which so much has been written as the Shroud of Turin. The implication
behind that observation is unmistakable, namely that many authors and
researchers must have been touched by the phenomenon of the Shroud. The purported world-wide interest in the
Shroud would seem to suggest that the Shroud will be one of those artifacts
that cannot be completely ignored. And indeed, those who find time to gaze at
the Shroud in all seriousness, will feel a kind of indebtedness.
5)The Shroud speaks: This is because the Shroud does not come out to us as a forged document. The Shroud speaks of a true event, concerning a real human being, in a situation of dire helplessness, in need of a heart that cares. Addressing thousands of people gathered in Turin as pilgrims seeking a glimpse of the Shroud, St. John Paul II said “Whoever approaches it (the Shroud) is also aware that the Shroud does not hold people’s hearts to itself but turns them to him at whose service the Father’s loving providence has put it… (The Shroud) reminds modern man…of the tragic situation of his many brothers and sisters and invites him to question himself about the mystery of suffering in order to explore its causes… Before the Shroud, how can we not think of the millions of people who die of hunger, of the horrors committed in the many wars that soak nations in blood, of the brutal exploitation of women and children, of the many millions who live in hardship and humiliation on the edges of great cities especially in developing countries?” (#3, 4). It can therefore be affirmed that the Shroud sends a wake-up message to the beholder. The shroud challenges the gazer to do something for the brother in need of succor or relief. It requires courage to gaze at the Shroud properly, for doing so excludes the leisure and the freedom of ignoring the plight of one’s neighbor.
Fr. Stanislaus greets Pope John Paul II who described the Shroud as “an
icon of the suffering of the innocent”, a theme implicit in the title of
the previous essay. The picture was taken on January 7, 1989 one day after the
ordination of the late His Excellency Justin Samba as Bishop of Musoma Diocese,
Tanzania. Each of the newly ordained bishops was invited to a private audience
with the Holy Father the day after the ordination. He could be accompanied by a few friends. Happily,
I accompanied Bishop Samba.
This was three months after the British Museum had announced the Shroud
to be of medieval origin (October 13, 1988). That the Shroud was a medieval
product was a heartbreaking announcement to many all over the world even though
it is difficult to guess the approximate figures. At Collegio San Pietro, where
I was residing as a student, no official count was made to find out the extent
of the impact of the announcement. I am not even sure if there was any sizeable
number students who were even aware of the existence of the Shroud. In any case, as the great Shroud historian Ian
Wilson observes, the homily John Paul II pronounced before thousands of
pilgrims to the Shroud in Torino in 1998, ten years after the Carbon-14 test announcement
will always leave anybody doubting if the now St. John Paul II was ever
persuaded in the least by the medieval verdict, made in the name of science.
Greeting the Holy Father, during the private audience, I felt my heart uplifted
for coming so close to the man who on the day of his election to the chair of
Peter told the world of believers in Italian, “Non abbiate paura…” Do
not be afraid of proclaiming the truth of the Gospel. But more especially,
today I saw myself greet a distinguished personality among the Shroud gazers -
the former Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla who - during the Public
Exposition of the Holy Shroud in 1978 did what not every Cardinal could think
of doing. Those days, Cardinal Wojtyla travelled all the way from Krakow,
Poland to Turin to do pilgrimage before the Shroud being one hardly noticeable
pilgrim, out of the throng of tens of thousands of pilgrims. As I greeted him
there was a magnetic smile on his face. But when I introduced myself, his smile
broadened out even more at the mention of my name “Stanislaus”. Whether his
smile broadened because my name reminded him of two out of the five patrons of
Poland, his homeland, namely St. Stanislaus of Szczepanow and St. Stanislaus
Kostka is less important. To me the more touching thing was this: on that day,
I shook hands with the later St. John Paul II, great admirer of the Shroud of
Turin, who not long after his pilgrimage to the Shroud was called to Rome to
join the conclave that elected him Pope.
51.HEALED IN
ORDER TO FOSTER AND PROMOTE OTHER PEOPLES’S INTEGRAL HEALTH
1) Healed to heal: In his letter to all the people living in the
Dispersion, St. Peter speaks about Jesus the Lord, drawing from Isaiah’s fourth
song of the Servant of God (Is. 53:5), saying “By his wounds we were healed”
(Pt. 2:24). As we gaze at the Shroud, those words give us another theme for
contemplation. Many scholars hold that Isaiah’s Servant of God refers to the
Christ. And that is the story of the Shroud.
In the Shroud the believer sees the man who was bruised to bring
salvation to the world and was crushed like grain to restore man’s health. Once
healthy or even once foot has been set on the way to healing, the proper gazer
at the Shroud begins responding to its call to try reaching out to a brother in
need. The act of gazing at the Shroud properly sends the message to the
understanding of the gazer that through the wounds of the Savior the individual
is not healed to remain indifferent to the condition of his neighbor. People
are not healed to bury their health inside their being. Rather, they are healed
so that by their involvement they can promote each other’s health. The gift
received gratis should prompt the receiver to go out and cause some
transformation in the condition of those around us. The joy of being healed
grows by being shared to others in the need of healing. Getting healed is a key
to the healing of others.
2)My Bishop’s consent: It is in the light of this that I get
to understand why when I mentioned my intention to the Bishop, Rt. Rev. Nestor
Timanywa that in my heart there was a great desire to find a way of helping our
people by opening up at least one more door to affordable quality education in
the name of the Shroud, he felt very happy about the idea and right away he
expressed his support of my imagination. It makes me understand why the Bishop
himself who had earlier on allowed me to stay outside the Diocese for not more
than one year and a half, seeing that there was consistency between my said
aspirations and my returns acted as though he had given me the permission to
stay out as long as I needed to work on the School project for the goals which
he also shared. I can imagine, he had been thinking of his people and here he
saw coming another good opportunity to do something to promote some relief for
them.
I went to America by his permission and while away there
I made sure I remained in touch with him and kept him informed of the progress
I was realizing and some of the huddles I was facing. And he was always
encouraging me to keep on strong. When I proposed the name “KWAUSO” for the
school I was dreaming of, his approbation was most prompt and enthusiastic. He
did not have the slightest objection. When I told him on the phone that I had
just received the first $100.00 for the project from some 21 Pre-school
children, unsolicited, he described the gift as one coming from little angels
just as I had seen them myself as they handed the donation to me on May 12,
2005 at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Peoria.
3)Dream watered by
general goodwill: When time came to look for the land for construction purposes, Bishop
Nestor Timanywa wrote and signed the request letter to the Itahwa Village
Administration, and authorized me to bring it to those concerned and charged
the Itahwa Parish Priest Fr. Lucas Mulokozi to follow it up till the request
was positively answered. And when, after happy discussions and longish
deliberations, the village consent was reached to offer the land, Bishop
Timanywa was there in person to receive and ascertain the boundaries of the
land that was given in response to his letter. The allotted land was given to
the Bishop of Bukoba Diocese for the purposes spelled out in the Bishop’s
letter of request. All that involvement
could be cited as sure evidence that Bishop Nestor Timanywa valued the KWAUSO
School dream, a service set under him on behalf of Bukoba Catholic Diocese, and
to be continued in his successors, for the benefit of our people, particularly
the marginalized: And all that to the honor of the compassionate Face of
Our Lord as seen in the Shroud.
In
the meantime, the Vicar General, later Bishop of Kayanga Catholic Diocese,
Almachius Rweyongeza was closely following the developments. His position as
Vicar General was taken by Monsignor David Mubirigi who happily carried on interest
in the School Project as well. While all that happened, Fr. Stanislaus was
playing the role of director in the unfolding of this initiative from start to
the present.
4)A work to continue: Upon
the retirement of Bishop Timanywa, came in Bishop Desiderius Rwoma who
canonically took over the leadership of Bukoba Diocese including the ownership
of KWAUSO Secondary School till his own retirement arrived and the ownership of
the School went into the hands of the Apostolic Administrator, Bishop Method
Kilaini. But Bishop Method Kilaini was not a stranger to the project. Over and
above working with KWAUSO as the official Chairman of the School Board of
Directors for a couple of years before, Bishop Kilaini he had been a close
advisor to its founder since the time of the formation and refinement of the
dream many years back. Then when time for his resignation from office arrived, ownership
of KWAUSO passed into the hands of Bishop Jovitus Francis Mwijage on January
27, 2024 at his ordination and installation as Bishop of Bukoba Catholic
Diocese. Two months later, on a casual visit to KWAUSO to assess its
development and as a gesture of encouragement to those he found at the site,
the recently installed Bishop Jovitus Mwijage did not hesitate to express his
appreciation of what he saw by describing the school as one of the jewels of
Bukoba Diocese.
52.
53.EXAMINING
THE COMMITMENT CALL OF THE SHROUD IN THE CONTEXT OF TANZANIA
1)The answer in a fragile piece of cloth: Once one respectable person said to
me upon seeing two of my Shroud books on top of the table somewhere: “Look, two
more books again on the veil of Veronica! What does all that interest in these
things and this veil still serve, Father?” Apparently, his intention was to
ignite the ridicule from the people who were there towards my book about the
Shroud. Luckily, nobody responded. The noise was left to die a natural death. Unfortunately, his statement betrayed utter
ignorance about what the book was about. He continued: Is it worthwhile spending all that energy
trying to relate that piece of cloth to Jesus? We know, Jesus is in heaven.
What more do you need to tell us?” Not being sure whether the man was just
kidding or earnest I proposed no answer.
But
even though to those questions I gave no answer, the objections that were
raised against my attitude did not change my conviction that, properly gazed at,
the Shroud bears a transcultural significance. It touches every section of
humanity irrespective of where we are and calls for some serious response from all.
In the very first place, the Shroud touches everybody because it speaks about
the salvation of all without discrimination.
The question, what is following after the life I am living today is
asked by all and the Shroud gives a hint about the proper answer as it speaks about
the transformation of our earthly and transient form of existence into the
immortal form after the resurrection. It is in view of attaining that life that
the individual will feel prompted to make some adjustments in living the
present one.
One
modality of response could be in the form of service to others. This is valid
for many situations and social settings including Tanzania. Many types of human
activities can be rightly be regarded as forms of service. But not all of these
have equal value or urgency. The Shroud opens up myriads of options of services
to its gazer. It remains the Shroud gazer’s task to determine the service that
is most relevant and appropriate, most befitting and momentous for the needs of
the specific community at the given time and circumstances. One Shroud gazer. Once Jesus
said referring to his sheep: “I have come so that they may have life and have
it to the full” (Jn 10:10b). The Shroud witnesses Jesus dying so that his sheep
may have life abundantly. A consistent Shroud gazer could decide doing some
sacrifice so that his brothers may access better life.
2)Wonderful
opportunity. Logically, a social service that could most
effectively enable us to reach out to more people in greater need, for a longer
time in the most Shroud-like manner would deserve our most immediate attention.
So, to my thinking, given our Tanzanian setting, a Secondary School would give
the most relevant answer to some of the most pressing questions, for the
reasons to be found in the next page. And while thinking those ideas I did not
have a single sent for approaching the implied building project.
3)Suggested by the context: At the time of our exploration of
the most befitting sequel to our gaze at the Shroud there was heard a general
outcry for quality education facilities throughout the country. My own
experience that I will talk about later on in the division # 55 told me that a
boarding secondary school was in our area a priority need. The question might
be asked as to how a school could fit into the picture of promoting the Shroud
by attending a social project. Fortunately, the answer is pretty easy to get.
It was enough to look at the Shroud and recall the compassion that radiated
from his eyes during his earthly life. His eyes were keen such that what looked
like a small detail drew his unfailing attention. The following incident
narrated by St. John the evangelist could suffice to bring out the point:
4)Learn
from Jesus: “Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool
called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five porticos; and under these were crowds
of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man there had an illness which had
lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had
been in that condition for a long time, he said, “Do you want to be well
again?” “Sir,” replied the sick man, “I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets
down there before me. Jesus said, “Get up,
pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around” The man was cured at once, and he
picked up his mat and started to walk around” (cf. John 5:2-9). The implication
of this is: Jesus who loved all men would reserve his keener eye for the
disadvantaged - those whose condition called for the primary attention.
5)A good
school:
Neat and beautiful and made purposely to help us focus our keener eye on the economically
less strong in the society surrounding us, KWAUSO would be a befitting means to
honor Jesus’ compassionate Face. Such a school must be self-sustaining, through
the contributions of the parents, in spite of their humble circumstances. While
concerted efforts are made by every stakeholder, one remembers also that good
souls are always around to inject their helping goodness into it to ensure that
the Lord’s work will not fail for lack of support. We thought that way and the
necessary support came. We got land at Kashambya seen in the picture on the
next page for free.
54
55. PONDERING
THE PROSPECTS OF A SCHOOL AS AN APT SEQUEL FOR EXECUTION
While my awareness
of the existence of the Shroud back in April 1985 came unexpected, the thought
that I should make a response to it in the form of a school project was not
equally sudden. The idea evolved gradually in the wake of concrete life
experiences.
One
sunny afternoon, July 2002 I was driving from Ntungamo Major Seminary where I
was putting up for couple of days of my June/July holidays to a place known as
Kemondo. Along the road, I saw many school children walking home from one local
Secondary school under the scorching sun; tired but seemingly feeling happy
because there was no better option open to them to do their schooling under
more acceptable conditions. I understood
these children were doing this every day of their school year. They were
walking the long distance going to school in the mornings and again the same
distance after the classes in the afternoon. I knew their school was not a
boarding. So, I was sure they were making those distances on empty stomach.
They were waking up earlier than 5:00 a.m. for sure and then, being rain or
none start trotting to school without a spoonful of tea or a morsel of bread or
anything of the like. Even though I knew
it was good and healthy for the children to walk and do some jogging, the distances these ones had to make every
day seemed to me way beyond the desirable levels. At that, it became clear to
my mind that something needed to be improved.
And ironically, this is the year I had
published my second book in Kiswahili on the Shroud of Turin bearing the title:
Zawadi-Kumbukumbu: Sanda ya Torino. So, now again, the Shroud idea came back to my
head. I began wondering whether the
Shroud had any relevance to the questions that were now pestering me with
regard to the schooling conditions of the children in the area. Then finally
came some light: “How about the possibility of building a boarding Secondary
school somewhere near? Clearly, it could only be one school while there are so
many children elsewhere going through the same kind of experience. But that
does not indicate that the idea is absurd. Even one more school would cause
some relief. As to the question where exactly the school might be built, I
thought of Kanyinya, an expanse of idle grassland between Kemondo and the creek
known as Omukimbimbiri. But, how and
when? It was a heap of questions with
less answers. Nevertheless, I felt some sort of delight within me that I had
questions for which I could try looking for a solution while I contemplated
again the meaning of the Shroud of Turin.
For that reason, one could remotely trace the first elements of the
dream of KWAUSO to those quiet deliberations even though the name of the School
itself came much later. In the next page
we shall see how this thought gained stronger impetus at the memory of the
prayer that Fr. Peter Rinaldi said for me when we met at Corpus Christi Church at
Port Chester in New York, America several years back.
Bishop Nestor
Timanywa (at center), Fr. Fulgens Rutatekururwa (Construction adviser engineer)
left and Fr. Lucas Mulokozi (Parish Priest of Itahwa Parish where KWAUSO is
located.
Declaration of our objective.
School logo summarizes the School aspirations.
57.ENKINDLED BY MEMORIES OF FR. PETER RINALDI’S PRAYER YEARS BACK
1)
Tracing the remotest origins of the idea: Most of the literature about the Shroud of
Turin that I got hold of at the beginning of my journey with the Shroud came
from Fr. Peter Rinaldi, a Salesian Priest of Italian origin who served in New
York. Apart from Shroud enthusiasts like Dr. John Jackson, it was Fr. Rinaldi
who as a cleric, played a big role in bringing together scientists, the legal
owners of the Shroud in Turin and the Catholic Church as the custodians of the
Shroud so that non-destructive tests could be done on the Shroud. He also worked
close with the American Shroud Guild that among other things published a
periodical Newsletter.
2)From
Bukoba to New York: Now at the end of my studies in Rome
before coming back to Tanzania, I asked for the permission to go to America in
order, among other things, to meet Fr. Rinaldi. He was working in the
Archdiocese of New York at the Parish of Corpus Christi, in Port Chester. I
asked the Rector to reserve a place for me in the Archdiocese of New York. It
all worked in my favor and so I went to America, the Archdiocese of New York. I
was assigned to do my ministry in one little Parish called Otisville about 83
miles from New York city. My plan was that from there I could arrange visiting
Fr. Rinaldi. On Monday August 10, 1992
three parishioners Judith Shields, Jeannette Varden and Donald Fitzpatrick gave
me a ride escorting me all the way from Otisville to New York City. We found
Fr. Rinaldi waiting for us at the rectory. It was big joy for both of us meeting
for the first time after years of mail correspondence.
3)Fr.
Peter Rinaldi: Fr. Rinaldi welcomed us into the dining room. Naturally what dominated our conversation
between a sip of coffee was the Shroud.
As our conversation proceeded, I drew my manuscript of my Kiswahili Book
about the Shroud from my portfolio. Its
title was USO (the Kiswahili
equivalent of the English word “Face”)
and the Subtitle: Utafiti Kuhusu
Uwezekano wa Picha ya Mateso ya Kristu (which might be translated as: “An Investigation into the Probability of the
Existence of a Picture of the Passion of Christ”. My choice of the title was
by no means accidental. I meant the Face of Jesus as seen on the Shroud of
Turin. The book was meant to present the basic scientific and historical facts
about the Shroud of Turin. I had used
the same word “FACE” in the dedication of my doctoral thesis where I wrote, “To
all those who in order to know the truth seek His Face without losing heart”. Fr.
Rinaldi was delighted seeing my work and assured me he would place an order for
the pictures I needed for the book.
Then
Fr. Rinaldi invited us to walk around the Parish quarters. The main stopover was a visit to the Shroud
Shrine at the entrance of which was written the phrase “In Memory of His
Death and Resurrection”. We entered inside the Shrine. Using the slightly
elevated life-size negative picture of the Shroud as a visual aid, and with a
joyful and confident tone that left no room for anyone of us doubting what this
object meant for him, Fr. Rinaldi took his time to speak about the sequence of
events that could have led to the death our Lord as attested by the Shroud. He
pointed out the most evident marks inflicted by the scourge on the body of Our
Lord. One could see marks of the nail wounds in the region of the wrist of the
Crucified, the traces of the flow of blood different wounds and more. On that
day more than ever before, a kind of consciousness was impressed onto my mind
that in the Shroud we were meeting a truly noble work of extraordinary
value. Then Fr. Rinaldi led us to the
main Church. We walked in from the front of the Church to the first step
leading into the sanctuary, while my friends followed from behind. At the edge
of the sanctuary, we stopped and knelt down in adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament in the tabernacle, me on the left of Fr. Rinaldi.
4)Fr.
Rinaldi’s prayer: After kneeling down, no
time was lost before the 82-year old Fr. Peter Rinaldi extended his left arm
over my shoulders and uttered an extemporaneous prayer saying. “Lord God, I
thank you for this priest from Tanzania. I pray that you will bless and enable
him to do for Africa what I have done for America in promoting the cause of the
Holy Shroud. And to you blessed Philip Rinaldi, my uncle, I commend Fr.
Stanislaus to your protection. Help him to accomplish what he desires to do for
the Shroud in his homeland.”
5)
Seed sown: I was silent as the prayer was being
said. For Fr. Rinaldi, this was a prayer from his heart. But for me it was different.
To me, that prayer was also a kind of inescapable challenge placed in the hands
of Providence. For even though I had neither expected nor prompted Fr. Rinaldi
to pray as he did, I could neither pretend not to have heard what he said nor
shut up my mind from thinking about the implications of his words after he had
expressed them. Had it been his intention not to let his prayer impact me, he
could have probably chosen not to say it aloud. One thing was clear to me:
Somewhere behind his prayer, I could sense a wish that I do something for my
people in connection with the Shroud. What and how, Providence would know. Interiorly
I accepted the challenge, but I did not say it to Fr. Rinaldi. Finished the prayer, we passed through the
sacristy door into the presbytery after which Fr. Fr. Rinaldi escorted us out
to the parking lot where we had left our car. There we bad each other Good-bye.
While that happened, I was not aware that this day of my first meeting with Fr.
Rinaldi, was also the last one I was ever seeing him in the flesh and that the
next time we meet, it will be in the presence of the eternal Father; for a few
weeks later, I flew back to Italy and proceeded home soon thereafter to
Tanzania. In any case, I had met Fr. Rinaldi and picked the challenge to do
something for the Shroud; a challenge whose nature I still had to discover. (Continued
on next page, below, after the pictures, pg. 58:)
Fr. Rinaldi’s Shroud
shrine, at Corpus Christi Church, Port Chester: Main
crucifix in the Corpus Christi Church Designed according to the Shroud image.
.
Fr. Peter Fr. Rinaldi
& Fr. Stanislaus Mutajwaha at Corpus Christi Church, Port Chester, N.Y,
1992.
Fr.
Stan gave his Philosophy doctoral thesis to Fr. Rinaldi dedicated “To all those
who in order to know the truth seek His Face, and showed him a draft of his
Kiswahili book about the Shroud: USO: Utafiti Kuhusu Uwezekano wa Picha ya
Mateso ya Kristu’.
===============================(Continued from previous page, page 57):
As we drove back to Otisville, the two ladies that had
accompanied me from Otisville to Port Chester, Judith Shields and Jeannette
Varden could not hide their inner joy at meeting Fr. Rinaldi, as they recounted
their heartfelt impression of him as “a saintly man who speaks so convincingly
about the suffering of our Lord those last hours of his earthly life”. Meantime,
having not the slightest reason to contradict their opinion, my head was heavy
with thoughts about Fr. Rinaldi’s prayer for me and his confident request to
his uncle Blessed Philip Rinaldi, asking him to help me to do for my people
back in Africa what he had done for America in connection with the promotion of
the cause of the Shroud.
Those are the memories that flashed to my
mind that afternoon when I saw myself witnessing the difficult situation of the
children walking so many kilometers from School. I persuaded myself to think that it was now for
me to do something tangible for those children besides the two books I had
written for the promotion of the Shroud. I thought that, for me, it was proper
if I tried to promote the Shroud by paying attention to the need of those
children. They needed a school and I thought my response should be leading me
into that direction. In March the following year (1993) already working again
at Ntungamo Seminary as lecturer and formator where I had been working as
in-service teacher before I was sent to Rome, I received the package of the
pictures that Fr. Rinaldi had ordered for me. Great joy again that I was now
well equipped to work on my proposed book. But the joy was unfortunately short
lived. For enclosed in the package was a letter from the House Superior at
Corpus Christi Church informing me that Father Rinaldi had passed away
(February 28, 1993). R.I.P.
59.RAYS OF COMPASSION RENDING THE HEARTS OF
SHROUD GAZERSS
Gazing at the Shroud, many
people feel from the depths of their hearts that their eyes are looking at the
suffering Jesus has endured. But
it would require an abnormal hardness of heart to see the suffering Jesus
endured as depicted in the Shroud and still simply walk away from it untouched.
It is probably for that reason that Pope John Paul II said the following words
to the pilgrims gathered in Turin during the public exposition of the Shroud in
1978: “Whoever approaches it (the Shroud) is also aware that the Shroud does
not hold people’s hearts to itself, but turns them to him, at whose service the
Father’s loving providence has put it”. (“The Shroud whispers: believe in God’s
love and flee from the misfortune of sin”, L’Osservatore Romano, 27(May
1998) #3. The implication is clear. Gazing at Jesus in the Shroud sends rays
of compassion that penetrate their hearts prompting them to promote the cause
of the Shroud or do something to help somebody in need.
On my part, apart from
writing my two books in Kiswahili about the Shroud and my occasional talks
about the Shroud I had not seen much yet that I might count as any serious
activity to promote the Shroud or answer to the challenge implicit in Fr. Rinaldi’s
prayer for me that I have hinted on in the previous subsection section. But
now, with the on-going realization of the dream of KWAUSO, a work in the name
of our Lord’s compassion which is also reflected in the image of the Shroud, I
can see Fr. Rinaldi’s prayer for me being more fully answered. Ironically this
work has also given me an opportunity to contemplate some aspects of
“compassion”.
Like rays of light,
compassion can spread from a simple source causing different effects on things
that are located at large distances from the source. True compassion will tend
to reach as far as possible. The thought to build a school to the honor of the
Merciful Face of Our Lord is an attempt to promote the Master’s compassion
among his people. But, by my experience,
a thought of that kind challenges the individual to the readiness to combine
two opposing sets of forces in one single vase. For in the same vase there will
be joy and bitterness, but the individual decides to go ahead all the same.
There will be want and plenty, yet the individual remains focused. There might
be pain and healing, yet the individual resolves not to go back. There will be persecution and encouragement,
yet the individual opts to proceed, come what may. If on the way the individual
stumbles into envious eyes, the individual remains firmly resolute to jump over
the huddles convinced that the blessings and consolation coming from the Lord
as well as loving hearts will not diminish.
When I was little,
there was a certain plant in my home village which we always tried to avoid
touching. To the eye this plant looks usual with nothing extraordinary about
it. It is not pungent and neither does it emit any kind of smell to warn or repulse
anybody who might be passing close by. But at the touch to the skin, the plant
burns painfully leaving the individual lamenting for having unknowingly pressed
their skin against it. Similarly, decision to do compassion might involve passing
through a pathway surrounded by all kinds of plants including the burning types
of that sort. As the journey goes on, the probability is always high enough
that, at some point, the skin of anybody walking the path will touch those
leaves. The consequences are too obvious to mistake: the walker can hardly
emerge from the bush without getting burnt by the plant.
The meaning of this similitude is this: It cannot be
considered abnormal getting into difficulties for trying to light a little
candle for the benefit of the Lord’s little ones. Doing anything in the name of
compassion is like planning to raise up a whole generation to the heights. But
doing so properly is likely to involve some sacrifice and pain because true
compassion costs. Consequently, if
efforts calculated to promote compassion happen to stumble into painful and disheartening
experiences instead of immediate happiness, let none be surprised. A popular
proverb says it well: “There is no Easter without Good Friday”. And as it will
be shown in the next page, pro-Christ activity is a highly rewarding
commitment. It crowns life with meaning and fills the actor with inner joy. For
that reason, it is worth embracing even if it might be physically or
emotionally bruising. That explains the reason why we find it proper to
dedicate our time and energy to remember with appreciation and gratitude the
sacrifices, the toil and pains borne by those who through their contributions
and involvement have helped in building KWAUSO Secondary School for the benefit
of our Lord’s “little ones”.
Above: The first evening of the first arrivals at KWAUSO, February 28,
2011. The 8 pioneer KWAUSO children pose for a memorial photo with their first
3 formators. From left to right: Dorosella Deogratias; Sarah Masau; Divera
Deogratias (Accountant); Hawa Yasin; Fr. Marcel Kaberwa (First Headmaster);
Kelvin Superius; Norbert Philbert; Malina Alex; Sophia Leopold, Asella Anatory
and Fr. Stanislaus Mutajwaha (Founder and Director). They had no predecessors
to learn from. Flying on the wings of trust and hope these pioneers set the
direction of KWAUSO with a smile of optimism on their faces. For lighting, the power was supplied by a
portable Honda generator donated by Philip and Paula Steele, great friends of
KWAUSO from North Henderson in Illinois, corner pillars of KWAUSO from the
start. (Right).
Below:
A few days after opening day the number of students increases.
61.CHRIST WITNESSED BY SELFLESS COMMITMENT: A NEW GARB
1)Drawing from
Christ to wear a new garb: Speaking to people eager
to listen to his word, Jesus gave the following teaching:
“Then
the king will say to those on his right hand,
“Come,
you whom my Father has blessed,
take as
your heritage the kingdom
prepared
for you since the foundation of the world.
For I
was hungry and you gave me food,
I was
thirsty and you gave me drink,
I was a
stranger and you made me welcome,
Lacking
clothes and you clothed me,
Sick
and you visited me,
In
prison and you came to see me…
In
truth I tell you,
In so
far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine,
You did
it to me”. (Mt. 25: 34-46”). Living that
teaching is like wearing a new garb of selfless-commitment. Those words captured for
us by the Evangelist could suffice to bring home a good lesson about the
nobility of acts of compassion. The lesson is about selfless compassion which
is neither a compassion for gain nor a compassion for show. It is rather a spontaneous
compassion shown to the unknown beneficiary who walking in unexpected, in their
different attire, walks in wanting and walks out, duly attended. It is a noble
kind of compassion - a highly desirable way of witnessing Christ, the Master of
compassion and for that reason definitely a most rewarding job – the key to have
the above quoted words said to the actor: “Come, … Take as your heritage the
kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world”.
2)Self-replication of compassion: When compassion is done in the
pure intention of doing compassion it replicates itself. It gains itself and
gets multiplied. For, the person who receives true compassion learns to
reciprocate it with compassion. This means, true compassion is fecund; it is
fruitful. Compassion bears compassion. An individual who has enjoyed the gift
of compassion will feel some inner urge to do compassion to others. Hence
compassion done towards the young is a seed of acts of compassion sawn for a
later generation. Compassion does not go down into the grave. If in ordinary
life what we plant today we shall reap tomorrow, compassion done today is a
pledge of even greater compassion tomorrow.
An act of compassion in
view of witnessing Christ today will bear a multiplicity of acts of compassion for
him tomorrow. All that is tantamount to this: A single act of compassion
accomplished in imitation of the compassion that is unveiled by our gaze on the
Shroud will lead to a repetition of acts of compassion in the days to come. Compassion is not a lesson to be learned in
the lecture hall but a reality to be experienced in the flesh out there, in the
streets and alleys where want and need reside. The joy of doing compassion is
known by its giver. The compassionate possesses the right keys to unlock the
right chambers of the heart where it stays hidden. The miser does not miss that
joy simply for the reason that his hands are empty but because those hands have
squeezed and crushed the keys rendering them unable to open the larger stores
of his bounty in his heart. The Christian believer may recall the Lord’s words,
“If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones
because he is a disciple, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not
go without his reward” (Mt 10:42).
Doing compassion looks good.
It is plausible. Giving and sharing with our fellow human being what we have is
a mark of commendable philanthropy. But
doing that in the name of Jesus is even nobler. KWAUSO cannot be aiming at
anything inferior to that. The next essay will try to bring that out.
Above is a picture of my mother, Ma Justina Mukahigi. When I asked her what she thought if I could propose to the Bishop the Kashambya grassland as place for building the school I had mentioned to her earlier on, she supported the idea saying: “For that is the place where we used to cultivate the special groundnuts “nshoro”. When she died in February 2014, I informed Gregory Folley, a strong benefactor of her demise. In response, Gregory promised his prayers and sent me funds to build something for her memory. Those are the funds that were used to build the upper floor of the administration, the part that is seen in the picture above. On completion of the construction a third of that upper floor was allocated for the library, the second part a computer room and the third part a physics room.
Second floor being added onto the first
following Greg’s donation for Ma Justina’s memorial.
Students
in front of the administration building close to the Bishop Timanywa classroom
block.
63.EDUCATE THE YOUTH AT A GOSPEL FLAVORED SCHOOL
1) For a Gospel flavored school: It was in the mind of the founder of KWAUSO
right from the time of its conception, that the school would be a service in
the hands of Bukoba Catholic Diocese and attuned to go beyond the horizons of
mere philanthropy. It never occurred to his mind, that this school would be
established as a private opportunity for his economic gain. For that reason,
getting the personnel to manage and organize its running without distorting its
direction presented itself as a challenge of primary consideration. It was
imperative to try getting self-less imitators of the One to whom the school is
dedicated.
2)The
first attempts: The
first thought went to a religious congregation that would be ready to work
under the Diocese for no personal lucrative gains. As the school was planned as
co-education facility, it would be enough looking for any religious
congregation whether male or female. The Bishop, Nestor Timanywa was ready for
either. He authorized me to look for a
Congregation that could fit into our desired categories. That way, started the
long march. He gave me a letter addressed to the Superior of one Congregation
of Sisters in Uganda. I took the letter by hand to the Superior of that
Congregation. I gave the bishop’s letter to her and explained our case. The
answer was not immediate. She needed time to consult with at least a few
members of her advisory committee. I spent the night there. On the following
day the answer came. After considering the facts, that we had no complete
structures to accommodate the sisters in a Convent and the scarcity of the
competent personnel available the Congregation was not in the position to give
us the help we were looking for. It was also said that even if the accommodation
will be found the Congregation should own the school and determine its running
policy.
All summed up, the conditions sounded unacceptable to me
and after the report of my findings the bishop did not seem enthusiastic about the
terms set by the Congregation. As a consequence, the option was abandoned.
After that, the bishop sent met to Kenya with
the same kind of request to a different Congregation of sisters who were
operating one school in Tanzania. Even that plan did not work either. While
still in Kenya I was directed to another religious Brothers Congregation. I
went to their generalate to try my lack, though without appointment. The
Superior General was not at home. But again, the answer was not the best for
our purposes. So, I had no way of not returning home empty handed.Then the
Bishop thought of contacting one Congregation of Brothers based in Uganda. He
gave me a letter that again I took with me by hand. I brought the request to
the superior. Again, the conditions set by the superior were hard and I
returned the way I had gone and reported my failure to the bishop.
2)Alternative options: Shortly later I paid a courtesy visit to the
Treasurer General of the Diocese, Fr. Peter Mutashobya. We talked about the
progress of the construction of the school and the financial difficulties the
project was going through. In due course
I also mentioned the problem of getting the personnel to run it. Fr. Peter wondered
why we could not think of looking for a reliable non-religious person in good
standing to entrust the job. I took this suggestion to the bishop. The idea was
acceptable and the bishop assigned me the task of trying to look for such a
person. I got a good candidate in the person of a recently retired Secondary
School Headmaster, equipped with the right credentials and talked to him about
what we would expect from him in the light of the mission of our School as an
instrument to promote the honor of the merciful Face of Our Lord. The man expressed his willingness and
readiness to work with us indicating though that he had another commitment,
which however, in his estimation was not likely to disadvantage his performance
as Headmaster. That major step accomplished, I brought his name to the bishop
who endorsed the proposal without hesitation. Apparently, the man was not a stranger to the bishop. Together with this man we started putting up
in place the necessary facilities for opening the school. About three months in our agreement, the man
was disturbed by the prospects of getting yet another extra commitment and
started doubting his ability of attending all the three jobs efficiently. We
sat together again and we came to the final understanding that it was wiser trying
to look for another candidate.
3)Finally: At that, I went to the bishop to report the disappointing
news. I had a difficult option to suggest. I asked him if he could possibly
think of assigning a priest at KWAUSO as Headmaster. The government criteria
were to be considered. He asked me if I
had a thought. The opinion I suggested could not be accepted because that
person was holding a delicate task. I mentioned some three other names and the bishop
said he would know how to handle the matter. Some three days later he told me
Fr. Marcel Kaberwa would be the first Headmaster of KWAUSO Secondary School. I
celebrated. Fr. Marcel was there to receive the first students as they reported
on February 28, 2024.
4)Later headmasters: After Fr. Marcel a couple of Headmasters
followed. The second Headmaster was Fr. Marianus Rutagwelera who was succeeded
by Fr. Remigius Rutashubanyuma. Then came Fr. Profilius Mulokozi who was
followed by Fr. Denis Rweyunga as the fifth Headmaster. More will still come. I
pray that in their hands the original intention of KWAUSO will not be diverted.
5)School Board of Directors: In
keeping with the Government rules and regulations all schools are run by the
Board of Directors. At KWAUSO the members of the Board have always worked
together the Executive Director who was the Founder of the School together with
the Headmasters and the school administration as such. They are appointed to
occupy their office for periods of four years.
A group
picture of students in front of one classroom block
64
Frank
and Amy Pala and daughter Megan
with Fr.
Stan in the snow after bringing
in some
computers from Retrotech Inc.
65. PLAN A
TIMELINE WHILE LISTENING TO PROVIDENCE
Shortly after I had made known my intention
to work on the school project a friend approached me with the question: You
have embarked on a noble cause. I wish you the best success. But what is your timeline like? When do you
think you will finish this work? In how many phases do you break up your work?
How do you fix the beginning of your phases and their respective completion?
Well intentioned as it was, the question was
not new to me. All I was aware of was that it was an important question. But I
had no answer. I could estimate how much
money would be required. But I had no idea when and where it was going to come
from. While I had ideas building up in the head, I did not have a single cent
to back up them up. I had no pledges or promises from anybody to put my
confidence in. I had no share in any investment Group. I had no business. I did
not know how to play bingo. I entrusted everything to Providence. I would
therefore not feel offended if anybody described this initiative a leap into
the open. Despite that, I planned big. Yet, when now I look at what we have, I
see more than I had expected. Providence has given more than my imagination. It
gives the impression that at times Providence walks with leaps and bounds in
such a way that those who walk behind him feel they need to adjust their own
steps. This is a different way of saying that, in Providence there is fullness
of generosity.
One of the clearest signs that Providence was
ready to intervene in his inscrutable ways was the arrival of unsolicited
little children who came seeking me at the rectory, St. Vincent de Paul Parish
on May 2, 2005 whom shall see in the next essay. When I consider their age and
the magnitude of their offer and the fact that I had not told them anything
about my plan to build a school to the honor of the merciful Face of Our Lord my
heart is prompted to a shudder. The
unprecedented support from the Parish Congregation that followed that seed
money from those “little angels” as well as the enthusiastic morale of the
people who showed their readiness to give a helping hand were more indicators
of the providential backing.
And after all that, Providence did not
retreat. I could see his supporting
presence in the way we obtained the land, given to the Diocese at the Bishop’s
request without paying money for it. We
saw electric power come to KWAUSO at a request. The number of students grew by
the year as the school picked up confidence in delivering.
Providence has revealed himself to us through
what each one of you has given in supporting KWAUSO. Each one of you has been
the hand of Providence.
Originally the plan was to build a school
capable of accommodating 376 students distributed over six classes in two streams at each grade like
this: Form I, 2 streams @ 35 students; Form II, 2
streams @35 students; Form III, 2
streams @35 students; Form IV, 2 streams @35 students; Form V, 2 streams @24
students and Form VI, 2 streams @24 students. Form II, 2 streams @35 students;
But with the turn of things, KWAUSO boasts of
over 620 students, all at Ordinary Level (i.e. Form I-Form IV, in roughly four
streams at each grade). Advanced Level
classes (Form V-VI) are still to be planned. The tremendous increase in the
numbers and quality of performance are matters to thank Providence for. Then the most recent development speaks loud
and clear of the great favor of Providence we have all witnessed: The building
of one ultra-beautiful church for prayer activities at KWAUSO for all the years
to come. More will be said about this miracle in some essays yet to follow. We
have unwaveringly paved our way all in the lead of Providence determined to do
all the best within our power to bring some hope to “those little one of
his”. And our trust has not gone down in vain.
Bishop Nestor
Timanywa (on left) welcomed David Kraft at Ntungamo Bishop’s residence. Fr.
Stanislaus pictured on right.
Frank & Amy Pala, El Peso in Illinois.
Great friends whose time has been generously
consumed to make sure the school project
keeps going.
.
67.TWENTYONE UNEXPECTED PRE-SCHOOL LITTLE ANGELS
1)
A surprise visit of Little Children: It occurred at St.
Vincent de Paul Parish in Peoria on May 12, 2005 around 11:00 a.m. I was reading
in my room when an intercom phone rung normally from the secretary in the
office. She wanted me to come out and meet visitors who had come to the rectory
looking for me. On the phone, she told me they were waiting for me in the
hallway but she did not to say who the visitors were. My response was prompt
all the same. Exited, I went to meet my visitors, whoever they might be. As I appeared, my visitors greeted me all
loud and clear as in one voice, “Good morning, Father” amid some kind of
relaxed chatter. Here are my visitors
for sure; little boys and girls, glittering faces, all eager and happy to meet
me. I noticed they had a partially concealed bag for me which they were soon
going to reveal. But my head told me they were much younger than I had imagined
at the reception of the secretary’s phone call. The visitors all looked between
four and five years of age. They were Pre-School children. I had hardly responded to their greeting than
one boy among them without wasting time raised up a placard above their heads
to let me read for myself their message to me. Judging by the handwriting, the
placard must have been prepared by their teacher or someone older than the little
angels. The placard read, “We
saved our money all year long. We saved $100. Now we’re giving it to you – to
help you build your school”. At the same time, two of their colleagues
brought forward a plastic bag signaling it was meant for me so I could take it.
The bag looked very heavy for them. Inside the bag was a collection of coins:
dimes, pennies, quarters and a couple of dollars, all totaling $100. This was
my money from the children. With deep gratitude I received the children’s
unsolicited gift and after my words of gratitude my visitors bade me goodbye
saying: “See you later, Father”, and left.
2) Enduring impact: It was joy within me. Thoughts
in my head run wild. I wondered how these little children had got to know the
secret hidden in my mind that I was planning to build a school that would be
dedicated to the honor of the merciful Face of our Lord. I had not asked them
to give me their money. I had not received any funds from anybody except one
donation from one old friend Werner Zimmer of Griesborn in Germany, to whom I
had revealed my desire and who had promised me $100. My thoughts flew to another
dimension: I saw in the gift of these children the hand of Providence. Memories
of Fr. Rinaldi’s 1992 prayer before the altar at Corpus Christi church flashed back to my mind, just
as also the image of the children walking back to their homes from school that afternoon
in Bukoba, when the challenge to light a candle for their young brothers and
sisters pricked my heart. I persuaded
myself to think that the time had now returned for me to do something tangible
in response to Fr. Rinaldi’s prayer that challenged me some almost thirteen
years earlier to do something for the people as part of my endeavor to promote
the Shroud apart.
Some words of Psalm 8 flashed across my
consciousness immediately after the children left as I took my money with me
into the chapel, adjacent to the Secretary’s office. I knew a bible was kept
there. I opened the bible to confirm the
text that my mind had led me to: “Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in
all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of
children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to
silence the foe and the avenger” (Ps. 8:1-2). The truth is, it is the
children’s gift that gave me the courage to reveal my dream of building the
school to the people. The idea had been cooking in my head for months. I was
that this idea had the Bishop’s approbation till that day but I had not known
how to dare reveal it. The children’s visit on that day put the words into my
mouth, so I could begin to talk about KWAUSO School Project in the public.
3) The logic of giving: It was obvious that, in
all prudence, I could not keep and own the money from the children behind the
awareness of their parents. So, what I did first and foremost was to tell my
fellow associate priest at the Parish about the unprecedented generosity of the
children when he returned to the rectory. He was happy. Together we arranged getting
the diocesan authorities informed about this matter and seek permission to tell
the parents about what had happened. We informed the Diocese the same day. The
Diocese was excited about it and the permission to talk to the parents was
granted immediately. At the weekend Masses, within two weeks later I told the
story to the parents. The parents were so moved at hearing about the generosity
of their children. They did not need too many words to see that their
children’s $100 was unable to build a school. For that reason, they gave their
contributions to top up their children’s offer so the project might start.
Looking at the events retrospectively I see the hand of Providence. I see the
beginning of the answer of Fr. Rinaldi’s impromptu prayer at Corpus Christi
Church in Port Chester. But, at the same time, the participation of all members
of the Parish opened up my eyes to one important lesson, namely the Logic of
giving which we shall treat in the following reflection.
Above:
The placard by the 2005
Pre-K children who gave me the surprise gift of $100 to build KWAUSO, on May
12, 2005 (The placard got
damaged years later in my boxes).
68
Chiara Molfese
Pavan,
Paula Freepartner, Seneca in Illinois
Murelle di Villa Nova,
Padova. Seneca
in Illinois.
69. INITIATIVES SECURED BY CONSISTENCY AND THE
TRUST OF DONORS
1)Obligated: To their gift, the little children who, as
clarified in the above essay, came to visit me at St. Vincent de Paul Parish
attached an important note, written in the clearest characters for anybody to
read. The note said: “Now we’re giving it (our money) to you to help you to
build your school”. Their message could not be clearer. Before their offer
that money was theirs. Through their act of giving the money became mine but it
was not supposed to remain mine in my pocket. I had to use it to build the
school. I had to understand that, from their point of view, this money was a
gift given freely; but from my own point of view, it was an obligation. By
their physical coming to place into my hands their gift, wrapped in love and
respect, those little angels were telling me that they wanted me to receive
their money, raw material as it was, in order to process and pass it on to
others in the form a School, probably for some unnamed children like themselves.
I could call that one part of the logic of giving. They did not give their gift
to be wasted. They put what they held precious into the hands of somebody they
believed capable of consistently making it produce due fruits; to benefit
others and that way propagate good. They believed their money would be put into
building a school and they would most probably be disappointed to hear that for
example their money ended up in buying a chopper or a bicycle.
3)Engaging stewardship: Closely bound to
that part of the logic of giving is trustworthiness of the receiver on the one
hand and trust on the part of the giver. While acknowledging the nobility of
the gift from the children, one must admit also that, taken alone, the amount
of money the children gave was not big enough to build a school. After
receiving I had to work to make sure the goal was realized. The money I
received gave me the courage to stand before the parents and talk about the
magnitude of the real need. And when I
picked up the courage to talk the parents responded whole heartedly to back up
the generosity of their children. The fact that they did so, made me understand
that, even if for no reason they had observed, those people saw in me someone
who could be trusted, and therefore, on my part, I was supposed to make sure I
acted consistently to have the two ends of the logic of giving lock in for a
noble circle of Generosity-trustworthiness-trust-Generosity.
Simply stated, all that means this: An initiative that depends on the
support of several individuals will ignite from the outpouring of the
generosity of the people themselves coupled with the trustworthiness of the
person or group of persons championing the initiative. That, in turn, will further fuel the generosity
of the same people or possibly even more of them depending on the goals of the
initiative as well as the means and limitations of those who see any sense in
it and are ready to participate. I could say that KWAUSO has traced that kind
of course, for which we ought to thank the Lord. But as any human initiative on earth, KWAUSO
is not immune from all possible dangers that might lead to stumbling. Lack of
candor in the operations, for example, might lead to some draw back if due care
is not made to rectify or amend the strayed movements at the various levels of
its development.
4)Hopes and expectations: We hope digration
does not happen. Rather, we pray that KWAUSO will grow as with consistency of
intention and faithfulness, always focused on its goals. KWAUSO will grow even in terms of its ability
for self-sustenance as well as the breadth and quality of service. Things go
well if the intention of the donor is respected and the promises are kept. So
long as the original intention of KWAUSO is honestly maintained, KWAUSO will
remain KWAUSO. The danger is that in the name of improvement all kinds of
arguments including distortions might be advanced to introduce things into
KWAUSO. In those moments, one of the best ways of escaping from the quagmire of
deception is responding to ourselves with the answer to the question as to why
this school was built as KWAUSO: Through and to the honor of the merciful
Face of Our Lord – meant to serve all but especially those whom our heart
feels untroubled to call His true little ones as will be shown in the following
essay.