KEVIN MOONEY: The Shroud Face To Face: New Investigation Points To Authenticity Of Shroud Of Turin, Filmmaker Says
What began as an “accidental photograph” in the words of author and filmmaker Robert Orlando yielded a highly detailed image of a crucified man with wounds that are particular to what Jesus Christ endured roughly 2000…
What began as an “accidental photograph” in the words of author and filmmaker Robert Orlando yielded a highly detailed image of a crucified man with wounds that are particular to what Jesus Christ endured roughly 2000 years ago.
The story — as it is told in a new Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) style film — highlights fresh research into the Shroud of Turin and puts the burden of proof back onto skeptics who claim the shroud is a medieval forgery.
Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of the Word on Fire ministry, describes the book that inspired the film as “a compelling and convincing account of the single most fascinating relic in the Christian world.” Orlando also wrote and directed the film from the book.
The first-person investigation turns on the photograph produced during an Italian festival in 1898 by an attorney and amateur photographer named Secondo Pia that included black-and-white negatives replete with astonishing revelations.
“The photo showed that the shroud was infinitely more detailed and lifelike than what was commonly thought,” Orlando said. “We see a crucified man with whippings, gashes on the skull and forehead where a crown of thorns could be placed, a cut in the side of the ribcage and nail wounds in the wrists.”
As Orlando points out, it was not exactly routine practice for Roman soldiers to fashion a crown of thorns. The photographic image also flushes out the wound between the fifth and sixth ribs that corresponds with a key passage from the Gospel of John where he describes how a centurion pierced Jesus’ side.
The shroud is 14-foot linen cloth housed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, that bears the image of a crucified man. Although carbon-dating techniques initially indicated the shroud was not old enough to be the burial cloth of Christ, the filmmaker points to updated research that now suggests otherwise.
“The Shroud: Face to Face,” which is set to premier online