It was in 1898 and the Holy Shroud was exposed for public veneration in the Cathedral of Turin, Italy. A photographer, Secondo Pia, who was actually a lawyer by profession, but who took pictures as a hobby, took a photograph of the Shroud. When Secondo Pia looked at the plate, he realized that the image of the corpse of Christ was positive and not negative, as it should have been. Because it was positive the image was much clearer than the one on the Shroud. The Face was clear, Mr. Pia could see all the details. Since that day the Holy Shroud has become not only a greater object of veneration for the faithful who believe that it is the burial cloth of Jesus, but at once it became the object of inquiry for many scientists. All the magazines and newspapers were writing about it. It is said that in only four years, from 1898 to 1902, well over 3500 books and articles on this subject were published in Europe.

Why such an interest? Those who wanted a confirmation of their beliefs could now find a good argument using the Shroud as an object left to them by Divine Providence to strengthen their faith. Those who were seeking an explanation of a phenomenon that had no equal either in history or in archaeology, found the Shroud most intriguing.

A group of scientists at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris took up the challenge to give a verdict on the cloth and the photographs of Mr. Pia. Under the tutelage of Prof. Yves Delage, a known scientist and a professed agnostic, Paul Vignon, undertook the inquiry. The work was done at the laboratory of Prof. Delage, with much assistance from him. After a year and half the investigation came to an end with a resounding climax. Those hard-headed scientists were convinced of the authenticity of the Shroud.

To the opposition that Prof. Delage received to his report he responded by saying: "If instead of Christ, there were a question of some person like one of the Pharaohs, no one would have thought of making any objection.... I recognize Christ as an historical personage and I see no reason why anyone would be scandalized that there still exist material traces of his earthly existence."

The Shroud continued to be an object of interest to historians, scripture scholars, and scientists, but it was not until the 1950s that a true revival of interest in the cloth began to surface again. With all the new scientific instruments used now to identify the origin and the nature of many artistic and archaeological artifacts, why not submit the Shroud to these new methods and once and for all establish its authenticity.

There is an avalanche of information coming from different sources. Scientists who are now in the majority lean towards the declaration of the authenticity of the Shroud. There is true human blood on the cloth; pollen is extracted from the cloth that seems to place the Shroud exactly in the geographical places that it had been; to the theory that it could be a painting, no pigment or paint are found on the cloth; the figure on the cloth is of three-dimensional nature, not found, up to that time, in any works of art (scientists discovered that the density of the image varies according to the distance between the cloth and the parts of the body underneath it. Because of this relationship they were able to create a three-dimensional image of the man buried in the Shroud); there is even an object over his eye identified as a coin bearing the inscription of the Emperor Tuberous Caesar. The man on the cloth bears the marks of the passion attributed to Christ by the Evangelists.

Over twenty lengthy scientific tests were made on the Shroud and all of them seem to lead to the conclusion that the cloth is of ancient origin; it is a burial cloth; the man who was buried in it remained wrapped in it for a very short period, before the corruption of the body began; the body was removed from it without doing any violence either to the body or to the cloth. Under such an impressive list of positives in favor of the authenticity of the Shroud, why not, the scientists said, do the ultimate testing, Carbon-14.

The Church authorities, always eager to find the truth, even though the Shroud neither adds nor subtracts from the deposit of faith, agreed to have a piece of the cloth taken from the Shroud for the purpose of testing. A number of scientists opposed the testing on the grounds that the total cloth of the Shroud had been exposed to so many different contaminants that the testing would be inconclusive. The testing was done. Under a barrage of controversy, the results were reported as dating the cloth to about the year 1350.

Today those who are interested in the Shroud are again moving towards a review of the Carbon-14 test by submitting the Shroud to a more acceptable test for a cloth which has been exposed to fire and to the continuous touch of human hands.

MY POSITION. I prefer to contemplate the Holy Shroud in silence, in wonder, in admiration. I leave to scientists to analyze it, to discuss it, turn it into an historical or scientific object of investigation. After one hundred years of investigation, no one has been able to deny its authenticity, therefore I accept it as authentic and use it for meditations. For me the Holy Shroud is a reality.