© Stephen E. Jones[1]
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This is the December 2019 issue of my Shroud of Turin News. As I mentioned in a comment under my previous post
"Since I am unable to post my Shroud of Turin News on time, the last issue was November 2019, I had almost decided to cease posting it, and I still might. However, I have decided to trial a cut-down version with less Editorial."I have listed below linked news article(s) about the Shroud in December as a service to readers, without necessarily endorsing any of them. My comments (if any) are bold in square brackets.
News:
• "Shroud of Turin still surrounded with mystery and passion," CNN, Julia Buckley, 13th December 2019 ... When she was 24, Emanuela Marinelli [Right (orig-inal)[2]] was walking near the Vatican in Rome when she caught a glimpse of a "beautiful face of Christ" printed on a souvenir in the window of a shop run by nuns. The image, she said, stood out among the other items for sale -- a kitschy array of ashtrays with the face of the Pope and plastic representations of Jesus on the cross, with eyes that opened and closed. "It was black and white with his eyes closed, suffering but serene," she said. Transfixed, she entered the shop and asked a nun who had painted the original version, only to be told there was no artist, it was a photograph of the Shroud of Turin. "I was surprised and disconcerted," says Marinelli. "The idea that [this photo was of] the funeral sheet of Christ with his image printed on it seemed... ridiculous. I left the shop skeptical, and didn't think any more of it." That was back in 1975. Today, Marinelli is one of the world's most prominent "shroudies" -- people who believe that the 14'5" x 3'7" [437 x 111 cms] linen cloth, which bears an image of what appears to be the body of a man, is in fact the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth ... It may seem amazing that someone who was living in Italy (Marinelli was born in Rome in 1951[3]) did not know about the Shroud. But in 1975, the last Shroud exposition had been in 1898 - 77 years previously, so many (if not most) Italians would not have known about the Shroud back then. But the next Shroud exposition was in 1978 - 3 years later, which turned Marinelli from a sceptic into a Shroudie![4]!
[Above (enlarge): Pope Francis at the Turin Shroud in June 2015. (Vatican Media)]
burial cloth of Jesus, will be publicly displayed again on the occasion of the Taizé Community's next annual meeting of Europe's youth in Turin, Italy, in December 2020. The announcement of the extraordinary display of the revered cloth was made by Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of Turin at Wroclaw, Poland, where this year's annual meeting of Europe's young people, known as the "Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth", is currently taking place. The Taizé Community has chosen the northern Italian city of Turin as the venue of its next meeting of Europe's young people, scheduled from December 28, 2020, to January 1, 2021. There is no official teaching or dogma on the authenticity of the Shroud, which is housed in the Cathedral of Turin. Next year will be the fifth time that the shroud will be on public display since 2000. The last time it was on display was from April 19 to June 24, 2015, in the cathedral of Turin." It is not clear if this December 2020 exposition will be open to the general public. It is commendable that there have been four expositions of the Shroud since 2000: 2000, 2010, 2013 and 2015, although the 2013 exposition was by television.
[Above (enlarge)[5]: The 2013 one-day (Easter Saturday, 30 March 2013) exposition of the Shroud by television.]
But it is not commendable that, "There is no official teaching or dogma on the authenticity of the Shroud." As I have pointed out (see 06Oct13, 26Nov13, 14Feb14, 01Mar14 & 16Sep19), it is:
• "Dishonest, because the Roman Catholic Church has spent, and continues to spend, the equivalent of many millions of US dollars preserving and protecting the Shroud, and holding expositions at which tens of millions of pilgrims have filed past it on the understanding that it really is Jesus' burial shroud. And individual Popes have expressed their personal conviction that it really is Jesus' burial shroud. So clearly the Roman Catholic Church (to its credit), really believes that the Shroud of Turin is the very burial sheet of Jesus and the image on it is of Jesus' body" (06Oct13a).
• "Weak, because as John Evangelist Walsh [1927-2015] (himself a Catholic) pointed out 50 years ago, either the Shroud of Turin is a deliberate fraud, or it is Jesus' burial shroud:"Only this much is certain: The Shroud of Turin is either the most awesome and instructive relic of Jesus Christ in existence-showing us in its dark simplicity how He appeared to men-or it is one of the most ingenious, most unbelievably clever, products of the human mind and hand on record. It is one or the other; there is no middle ground"[6].If the Shroud of Turin is a deliberate fraud, then it would almost certainly be a work of Satan "the deceiver of the whole world" (Rev 12:9), and no Church that calls itself Christian should be promoting a deliberate fraud (let alone a work of Satan)!" (06Oct13b).
• Duplicitous "... it is duplicitous (i.e. two-faced), of the Vatican to refuse to confirm or deny that the Shroud is authentic. By its actions of spending the equivalent of tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars preserving the Shroud and exhibiting it to millions of people as though it is authentic, the Vatican clearly does believe that the Shroud is authentic, so it should say so. Shroud anti-authenticists cite the Vatican's refusal to state that the Shroud is authentic as evidence that it is not" (17Apr15; 23Jun15; 07May16a).• Amoral If the Shroud is not authentic "then it can only be the image of someone else tortured and crucified to make it look like Jesus":
"... as devout Roman Catholic Donald M. Smith pointed out in his 1983 book, "The Letter," which was in the form of a letter to Pope John Paul II, if the Shroud is not authentic then it can only be the image of someone else tortured and crucified to make it look like Jesus (see 25Oct15). And for the Vatican to exhibit that, would show it has the same "the end justifies the means' ... principles of ... Nietzsche, Machiavelli and Adolf Hitler":"[If the Shroud is not authentic] ... there is another conclusion which also must follow: Sometime between 100 A.D. and 1357 A.D., an evil, cruel and sinful act occurred. A human being was actually made to go through the exact same torture and agonizing death as suffered by Jesus and as reported in the Gospels, for the sole purpose of producing a valuable relic ... If the goal of producing a likeness of the only begotten Son of God by such evil means, could in any way be condoned, then the whole principle is based on the theories that `the end justifies the means,' and that `power makes right.' These are the same set of principles of men with character the likes of Nietzsche, Machiavelli and Adolf Hitler ... It is not right to venerate an object if that object was created by evil means" (my emphasis)[7]. (07May16b).
Editorial
Posts: In December I blogged nine new posts (latest uppermost):
"My position on the Shroud: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #7" - 30th; "Flower & plant images #31: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!" - 17th; "My Shroud blog: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #6" - 16th; "News and Editorial," Shroud of Turin News, November 2019" - 11th; "About me: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #5" - 10th; "`Is the Shroud of Turin authentic? Or is it a forgery?' #2" - 6th; "This book: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #4" - 4th; "News and Editorial," Shroud of Turin News, October 2019" - 2nd; and "Preface: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #3" - 1st.
Pageviews: At midnight on 31 December 2019, Google Analytics [Below (enlarge)] gave this blog's "Pageviews all time history" as 1,132,902.
This compares with 998,352 at the same time in December 2018. That is 134,550 pageviews over the year, or an average of ~369 pageviews per day.
Google Analytics also gave the most viewed posts for December (highest uppermost) as: "Introduction #2: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!," Jul 9, 2015 - 113; "`Is the Shroud of Turin authentic? Or is it a forgery?' #2" Dec 6, 2019 - 113; "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 to the present: 1st century and Index," Jul 24, 2016 - 77; "Shroud on SBS 1 Australia at 7:30 pm tonight Sunday 24 March," Mar 24, 2013 - 69 & "Flower & plant images #31: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!" Dec 17, 2019 - 66.
My 2013 "Shroud on SBS 1 Australia at 7:30 pm tonight ... " post is interesting because the main part of the post is in my comments below it! I commented on: "1) Barbara Frale's claim that there is Hebrew writing on the Shroud, which was refuted by Barrie Schwortz"; 2) Problems with the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud as `medieval' were also discussed by Barrie Schwortz"; 3) Prof. Luigi Garlaschelli's powdered ochre bas relief `reproduction'. Barrie Schwortz examined under a microscope ..."; 4) Prof. Nicholas Allen's claim that the Shroud is a medieval photograph using a camera obscura, a large calcite lens and a silver nitrate emulsion on linen as a photographic plate." My comments on that are too long to summarise. Presumably one or more of those items were being discussed in another forum.
Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]
2. "La Sindone ed Emanuela Marinelli: conquistata dall’uomo della croce," Famiglia Cristiana, 6 April 2017. [return]
3. Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta, back cover. [return]
4. Ibid. [return]
5. "Live: the Turin Cathedral 30.3.2013," YouTube, Mar 30, 2013. [return]
6. Walsh, J.E., 1963, "The Shroud," Random House: New York NY, pp.x-xii. My emphasis. [return]
7. Smith, D.M., 1983, "The Letter," DMS Publishing Co: Rancho Palos Verdes CA, pp.24-25. [return]
Posted: 21 February 2020. Updated: 3 March 2020.
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