Shround Encounter exploring Shroud of Turin coming to Albany church

ALBANY — It would be hard to find a more debated religious symbol than the Shroud of Turin, which will be on display this spring for the longest period ever in Turin, Italy. For those in the Albany area who are curious about this artifact, St. Teresa’s Catholic Church has a pair of presentations of a program called “Shroud Encounter.”

On Feb. 21-22, those in the Albany area who would like to explore aspects of the mysterious linen that many Christians believe was used to wrap Christ’s body following his Crucifixion can hear from Russ Breault, president of the Shroud of Turin Education Project who has lectured extensively and appeared on national programs as an expert on the topic.

The shroud is a linen cloth about 14 feet long that has been in Turin, Italy, for more than four centuries. It has a faint front and back image of a bearded man who appears to have had wounds that left bloodstains and that match the Crucifixion account, leading many to believe it is or may be Jesus’ burial shroud.

After talking with Breault, it’s clear he’s as fascinated by the subject of the shroud as he was in 1980 when he first got interested in it while a student researching a college newspaper article at Columbus State University. It’s also just as clear that the answers to a mystery that may be more than 2,000 years old continue to be elusive.

“My position has always been I don’t know if the shroud is authentic,” Breault said in a phone interview last week. “I just think it could be and let’s explore the mystery and find out what we know and find out what we don’t know. As we explore the mystery, we’re also going to encounter the message of the shroud.”

The shroud has fascinated many in that it has the image of a man impressed upon it in a way that has not been determined. Some believe the image, which Breault said is captured in less than 1 percent of the thickness of the threads of the burial cloth, is that of Jesus. Others believe it is a image of some sort dating from medieval times. But whether supernatural or natural in origin, a definitive answer for how the image got on the cloth has not been reached.

“The Shroud of Turin is one of the most enduring mysteries in the world,” Deacon Jay Dallas, chairman of the committee at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church that planned the event, said in regard to why the Shroud Encounter program was being brought to Albany. “It has a draw to both believers and mere curiosity seekers.”

The cost of the program, which will include about 200 big-screen images and the display of a life-sized replica of the shroud, is $10 for those 18 and older; free for those 17 and younger. The 90-minute presentation will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 21 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 22 at St. Teresa’s, 421 Edgewood Lane in Albany.

“We thought it would be a good way to invite everyone into a thoughtful and prayerful season of Lent, even if Lent has never been part of their religious tradition before now,” Dallas said. “People need the Lord and the graces of the Lord are real.”

Another event that might spark interest in the Albany program is the fact that the shroud is about to go on its longest-ever display in Turin. Vatican Radio reported in November that Pope Francis planned to visit the Shroud this summer — the visit has been scheduled for June 21 — after expressing a desire to venerate the shroud. The Archdiocese of Turin scheduled the exhibition for April 19-June 24 to facilitate the papal visit.

Vatican Radio quoted the pope as saying that “the Man of the Shroud invites us to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth,” adding the image “speaks to our heart and moves us to climb the hill of Calvary, to look upon the wood of the Cross, and to immerse ourselves in the eloquent silence of love.”

That reflects Breault’s observation that the Catholic church has not taken a position on the authenticity of the shroud.

“The official position of the Catholic church on the shroud is they don’t call it a relic, which is to say that it’s authentic,” he said. “And they don’t call it an icon, which is to say it’s a painting. They call it a symbol of Christ’s suffering worthy of veneration.

“The use of the word symbol is a very smart word for them because it allows them to display the shroud and not get caught up in the fray of whether its authentic. Whether it is or isn’t, it certainly remains a symbol.”

That authenticity was called into question in 1988 when a small piece of the cloth was carbon-14 dated to the period of 1260-1390, but Breault says that was disputed by a chemical testing 2005 that was published in a peer-review journal that said it appeared fibers in the cut swatch wasn’t chemically the same as the rest of the cloth. Researchers at University of Padua in Italy examined the fibers in 2013 and dated them to 220 B.C.-280 A.D. based on comparisons with chemical decay from linens of known age from antiquity, including a mummy linen from 3000 B.C.

Breault, who has appeared on Shroud of Turin documentaries on CBS, Discovery and History, also noted that the 1978 dating violated scientific protocols in that it should have come from three samples rather than a single one taken from an edge that had been handled repeatedly over the centuries, giving rise to the idea that the tested area may have been a medieval-era reweaving or repair. The shroud also was known to have been in Constantinople in 1204, where it had been for several hundred before it was stolen during the 4th Crusade, he said.

“So, now you have a 500-year range with the 1st century right in the middle,” he said. “So who’s right and who’s wrong? We don’t have a real good handle on the dating. … We know the carbon date is wrong, we just don’t know how wrong.”

Noting the church’s designation of the shroud as a symbol, Breault said he felt it unlikely that the Catholic church would authorize another carbon-dating effort employing rigorous scientific protocols. Using the term allows the church to say the shroud “is what it is,” letting each individual determine the artifact’s personal importance.

Asked if he were religious, Breault said he is a believer, but makes no public statements “regarding religious affiliation. I believe Jesus is who he says he is.” His fascination with the shroud is evident. In his presentations, he says, he takes the approach of peeling down the mystery “layer by layer.”

For instance, why is the image of the man more prominent on a photographic negative? Also, the shroud has been subjected to damage from water and fire over the years, and there are blood stains that show on both sides of the shroud, but the man’s image only shows on the one side that would have touched the body.

“If you turned the cloth over, you’d see those things — the burns and water stains and blood. But you wouldn’t see the man’s image,” he said. “The man’s image is a purely superficial phenomenon that affects only the top one or two microfibers of the cloth.” Each thread is about 200 microfibers thick, he said.

There is also “distance information” on the shroud. “Literally, it suggests this cloth wrapped a human form at the time this image was created,” Breault said.

If the image was created through artwork, no one has been able to determine what was used or how to create it.

Breault said he does two presentations on the shroud, one geared more toward churches and the other for more secular audiences. The primary difference, he says, is addressing the resurrection as a possible cause for the image.

“There is no reputable historian who’s going to argue that Jesus was not a historical figure, that he lived and he was crucified by the Romans,” he said. “There’s near universal agreement on that. Where you’ll get into a lot of difference of opinion is where the scriptures say on the third day Jesus rose from the dead. So, I kind of stop short of the Resurrection if I’m going to do this for secular school.

“But if I’m going to do this for a church (as in the presentations at St. Teresa’s), then … the image is some other process and we don’t know what that process is. So if this is the burial shroud of Jesus, then it stands to reason that it kind of allows us to explore what happened to Jesus in the tomb and can we relate that to what we see on the shroud. For a church group, I go much further into the resurrection as a possible cause for the image.”

For Christians, he said, “If the shroud is authentic, it is what it is. But if it’s some kind of incredible religious icon created from the Byzantine era, it was created to convey the very same message. It speaks to the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. You cannot separate the shroud from the message of the shroud.

“As dispassionate as we want to be to the white lab coats of objectivity, it is a religious artifact. There’s no way to dance around the fact of what the shroud is or what it purports to be.”

Dallas said the event was open to everyone.

“No matter where folks are in their own spiritual journey, God always has more of Himself to reveal to them,” Dallas said. “We hope this event is helpful to that end.

“No matter what conclusions people make about the Shroud, we hope the presentations will draw everyone to a renewed appreciation of the real sufferings that Jesus Christ endured in His crucifixion as a sacrifice of love for all of us. It is a terrible, yet beautiful, gift beyond compare for we who believe.”