There is only one answer to this question.
It either is or it is not.
There is, as we say so often, no in between in this matter.
But we live in a world where, as it has been said by a master of lies, if the lie is told often enough, people will believe it. We live in a world where, unfortunately, the Lord allows the evil one to, as the father of lies and for the purposes of testing the hearts and minds of people, propagate lies.
This is what has happened in the case of the Shroud.
The Shroud is NOT a painting.
The scientific proof of this will be 25 years old this October.
A team of 40 scientists from around the world who actually touched the cloth and investigated it in person discovered that NO PAINTS, PIGMENTS OR DYES MAKE THE IMAGE! Their scientific experiments passed the peer review of colleagues from around the world. That is why the study of the Shroud by scientists continues today.
Instead of paint, the Image on the Shroud, they discovered, is made of dehydrated and oxidized linen. In other words, where the Image appears, the linen has had all the water and oxygen taken out of it in a process science does not understand nor can duplicate. The topmost fibers of the cloth in these areas has actually, as a result of this unknown process, aged faster than the rest of the linen.
This information comes from a chemical analysis of the cloth by Dr. John Heller and Dr. Alan Adler. We personally interviewed Dr. Heller in 1983 and he told us he tried to disprove the Shroud and show that it was a painting. He came to understand he couldn’t. He became, instead, a believer in the authenticity of the Shroud.
Dr. Adler, his partner, also did not intend to prove the Shroud was real.
He was raised as an Orthodox Jew.
As a result of Dr. Adler’s studies, he spent the rest of his life among those who continued to diligently delve into the mysteries of the cloth.
Before Dr. Adler’s recent death, the Cardinal of Turin, Italy, where the Shroud has been housed since 1578, asked Dr. Adler in 1998 to be in charge of any conservation efforts in regard to the ancient cloth.
This is how the Shroud has amazingly affected the lives of people like Dr. Adler. A cardinal and an Orthodox Jewish man working to preserve the cloth.
The Shroud also has another effect.
An effect on those who hate it.
An effect on those who cannot stand what the cloth represents — the Resurrection of Christ!
An effect on those who hate Jesus and, who also, by the way, hate His Church.
They go to all means to make people believe the Shroud is a “fake.”
One such person is a man by the name of Walter McCrone.
McCrone was a scientist who claimed that the Shroud’s Image was made of paint. He submitted his work to a panel of scientists and his claim DID NOT PASS THEIR PEER REVIEW! They rejected it.
The scientists rejected McCrone’s work because he could not prove paint made the Image. McCrone had used his own eyesight through a microscope looking at microscopic samples of fibers on the Shroud to make his claim. A more advanced scientific tool, the electron microscope, one the old-fashioned McCrone detested, had proven McCrone’s human eyes were wrong and the man didn’t know his proverbial you-know-what from his elbow.
The same scenario occurred when McCrone claimed that an ancient map was a “fake.” Once again, a more sophisticated scientific instrument proved McCrone’s eyes were crossed and he didn’t know _ _ _ _ (you fill in the word).
McCrone was supposed to be an “art expert” in discovering forgeries and his reputation was on the line in making these statements about the Shroud, as well as his living. He was the founder of the McCrone Institute in Chicago. McCrone spent the rest of his life fighting those who knew the Shroud was NOT a painting and those who knew the map was authentic.
In speaking with Dr. Heller, we learned that McCrone was not unopposed to circumventing what would normally be considered “ethical” activity.
Toward the end of his life — yes, Virginia, he is dead now — McCrone became so embittered about the Shroud that he even made the outrageous claim in his own self-published book, Judgement [sic] Day for the Shroud, that a very important investigator, Father Peter Rinaldi, had come to believe the Shroud was not real.
This was an amazing accusation because Father Rinaldi was the man behind the reason science was even allowed to examine the cloth in the first place. He had advocated the scientific investigation of the Shroud and believed all his life in the cloth’s authenticity. He was not afraid of science’s scrutiny.
Father Rinalid knew it was authentic not only because of the science of the Shroud, but he was instrumental in bringing a young lady in a wheelchair to touch the cloth. She had been given six weeks to live at the age of 11. Father Rinaldi witnessed the miracle of this young woman, who after giving birth years later as a mother, returned to Turin to thank the Lord for the miracle of her life. She was now 33 years old.
McCrone made the claim that Father Rinaldi stopped believing the Shroud was real when the priest could not retort to McCrone’s claim. Father Rinaldi had passed away. McCrone made this claim in his own self-published book. No one agreed with him — especially those who knew Father Rinaldi and had spoken with him up to the time of his passing. In fact, those who knew Father Rinaldi were shocked that McCrone would even suggest such a thing. No one had ever heard Father Rinaldi speak against the cloth or its authenticity.
Just before he died, McCrone was given an award by the people he worked with for his “contributions” to science, among them, ironically, his “findings” on the Shroud.
McCrone is, was and always will be a liar, no matter how many “awards” people may give him.
A liar is someone who tells a lie.
A lie is a “false statement purposely put forward as truth.” It is “something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.”
A lie also “presents false information with the purpose of deceiving.”
A lie is also an “untruth,” which stems from “untrue,” which means to be “not faithful” and “disloyal.”
Before the end of his life, McCrone, who once claimed to be a Christian, stated he no longer believed and that the battle over the Shroud was one of the factors in his decision. McCrone had lost whatever little faith he once claimed to have.
McCrone has left a legacy. It is a legacy of lies. It lives on in the McCrone Institute and those who follow him. It is a legacy that is disloyal to the Truth.
In the January issue of Reader’s Digest, which was brought to our attention, an article entitled, “Crime Seen,” quoted a “researcher” by the name of Skip Palenik, who has been schooled in McCrone’s old haunt. The article casually dropped the line that “Walter McCrone proved the image on the Shroud of Turin was formed not by Jesus’ body but by expertly applied paint.”
(Amazingly, this was done as a “parenthetical” statement as the article discussed Skip’s work.)
Walter McCrone did not prove any such thing.
Walter McCrone proved he is a liar.
Science proved Walter McCrone is a liar.
Real science has discovered the Shroud’s Image is not made from paint.
It is an inescapable fact.
We do not ask anyone to believe in the Shroud as the authentic burial cloth of Jesus.
That is a personal decision one must make on faith.
But we cannot allow anyone to claim any further that the Shroud is a “painting.” That is an outrageous and unscientific lie.
We, however, believe wholeheartedly that the Shroud is Jesus’ burial cloth.
And we believe that McCrone has met — for a brief judgmental moment — the Person whose Holy Face he claimed was not the Lord’s.
McCrone, we believe, is now paying a price for his lies about the Shroud. It is a price we believe he will pay for Eternity. A price he has to pay because he has misled so many souls about such an important relic as the Shroud.
But his legacy still lives on. It is the legacy of a lie.
A lie that should never be found in what should be a more carefully edited and scrutinized publication like the Reader’s Digest.
The Shroud is not a “painting.”
The Reader’s Digest, and any other media outlet that makes that claim, is perpetuating a proven lie.
© 2003 Agnus Dei Presents!
