If it wasn't for the Catholic authorities, with the Pope's cooperation and approval, refusing to accept that what they have on display in Turin Cathedral is not the authentic shroud that Jesus was allegedly wrapped in but a Medieval artefact, possibly a deliberate forgery as this recent paper suggests or a prop used in Early Medieval Passion plays as British historian Charles Freeman convincingly argued, it would have been put into a museum drawer labelled Medieval European Religious Artefacts years ago.
And all this despite Catholic Bishop Pierre d’Arcis writing to Pope Pope Clement VII in 1390 to tell him that the 'shroud' was a forgery.
[The Shroud is] a clever sleight of hand [by someone] falsely declaring this was the actual shroud in which Jesus was enfolded in the tomb to attract the multitude so that money might cunningly be wrung from them.
Bishop Pierre d’Arcis,
Letter to Pope Clement VII, 1390
Letter to Pope Clement VII, 1390
In fact, this discovery is not itself particularly new, being presented at the 66th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, February 17‐22, 2014, in Seattle, WA, USA and again at the 67th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, February 16‐21, 2015, in Orlando, FL, USA. However, it appeared in print for the first time here. Regretably, all but the abstract is behind a paywall:
Abstract
An investigation into the arm and body position required to obtain the blood pattern visible in the image of the Shroud of Turin was performed using a living volunteer. The two short rivulets on the back of the left hand of the Shroud are only consistent with a standing subject with arms at a ca 45° angle. This angle is different from that necessary for the forearm stains, which require nearly vertical arms for a standing subject. The BPA of blood visible on the frontal side of the chest (the lance wound) shows that the Shroud represents the bleeding in a realistic manner for a standing position while the stains at the back—of a supposed postmortem bleeding from the same wound for a supine corpse—are totally unrealistic. Simulation of bleeding from the nail wounds contacting wood surfaces yielded unclear results.
The forensic scientist have shown that the blood flow depicted on the shroud as flowing from the wounds is inconsistent with death by crucifixion. Some of the blood flow patterns would require the arms to be held in the Y position while other would have required the arms to be held upright. Similarly, while the blood flow the supposed lance entry wound on the front of the body is consistent with an upright figure, the blood flow from the exit wound would require the figure to be supine.
And of course all this ignores the fact that the body would have been washed prior to being wrapped in a shroud. It is also contradicted by the passage in the Bible in John which clearly describes two cloths.
And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
John 20:5-7
Clearly, to the Catholic Church, the desire to make money and to fool the faithful so they continue to give comes far above any interest in truth and honesty and the need to obey the commandments of the god they purport to worship which told them not to bear false witness. As always with a business, the 'morality' is about the bottom line on the balance sheet.
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