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Shroud of Turin Education and Research Association, Inc. (STERA, Inc.)

Late Breaking Website News!
Updated March 30, 2013




Check here for important announcements and other Shroud of Turin Website news. This page will be updated whenever new page additions, articles and other resources are added to the site. Each item carries a posting date indicating when it first went online. The most recent update appears at the top of the page. As you scroll down through the page, you can review the items that were added this year in chronological order. You should find this an excellent way to sample the evolving content of this website.

Archived Website News pages: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996

In Case You Missed It...

In case you missed the live streaming television exposition of the Shroud today, here is a short (9:29) YouTube video clip showing some of the highlights of the event. Just click the arrow above to play the video. If you prefer, you can now watch a replay of the entire 90 minute program at this link. You can also see several video clips (in Italian) featuring the opening statement of Pope Francis. Here are the links: The Face of Faith (1:37), Exposition of the Shroud on TV (2:46) and Pope: The Face of the Shroud as Victims of War (3:26).

Here is an English translation of the complete text of Pope Francis' comments on the Shroud (from The Telegraph in the U.K.):

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I join all of you gathered before the Holy Shroud, and I thank the Lord who, through modern technology, offers us this possibility.

Even if it takes place in this way, we do not merely “look”, but rather we venerate by a prayerful gaze. I would go further: we are in fact looked upon upon ourselves. This face has eyes that are closed, it is the face of one who is dead, and yet mysteriously he is watching us, and in silence he speaks to us.

How is this possible? How is it that the faithful, like you, pause before this icon of a man scourged and crucified? It is because the Man of the Shroud invites us to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth. This image, impressed upon the cloth, 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.

Let us therefore allow ourselves to be reached by this look, which is directed not to our eyes but to our heart. In silence, let us listen to what he has to say to us from beyond death itself. By means of the Holy Shroud, the unique and supreme Word of God comes to us: Love made man, incarnate in our history; the merciful love of God who has taken upon himself all the evil of the world to free us from its power.

This disfigured face resembles all those faces of men and women marred by a life which does not respect their dignity, by war and violence which afflict the weakest And yet, at the same time, the face in tthe Shroud conveys a great peace; this tortured body expresses a sovereign majesty. It is as if it let a restrained but powerful energy within it shine through, as if to say: have faith, do not lose hope; the power of the love of God, the power of the Risen One overcomes all things.

So, looking upon the Man of the Shroud, I make my own the prayer which Saint Francis of Assisi prayed before the Crucifix:

Most High, glorious God, enlighten the shadows of my heart, and grant me a right faith, a certain hope and perfect charity, sense and understanding, Lord, so that I may accomplish your holy and true command.

Amen.

Posted March 30, 2013

BREAKING NEWS!
New Shroud Book Sparks Immediate Controversy

Il Mistero della Sindone
Il Mistero della Sindone
(The Mystery of the Shroud)

I am always thrilled to see positive news about the Shroud in the popular media, rather than the negative, skeptical attacks that happen so frequently, and particularly at this time of year. Yet the past few days have been filled with positive stories! Not only is the Shroud to be publicly exhibited on television this coming Saturday, March 30, 2013, but the event will be introduced by Pope Francis himself. You can find details on the exhibition in the articles we first posted on February 27, 2013, below.

The latest news is about a new Italian language book (released today) titled, Il Mistero della Sindone (The Mystery of the Shroud), and co-authored by our friend Giulio Fanti and Italian journalist Savero Gaeta and published by Rizzoli, an important Italian publisher. Click on the image link above to read about the book on the publisher's website (in Italian). Here is an English auto-translation of the book's description from their website:

"A mystery of the cross and light," that unexplained and irreproducible body image imprinted on the cloth is testimony to the passion and death of Jesus, but also of his resurrection. The words spoken by Pope Benedict XVI returned to the Shroud whole truth that scientific research had tried to resize. In 1988, in fact, with the C14 dating, scientists determined that the Shroud taxes date back to the Middle Ages. Today, thanks to a multidisciplinary work promoted by the University of Padua and lasting fifteen years, the team led by Giulio Fanti shows that the radiocarbon dating has been distorted by environmental contamination, and goes right back to the early death of Jesus that traces of dust, pollen and spores from the Middle East to direct, that the body has been depicted on the linen, violence told in the Gospels of the Passion, and the image was produced by the exceptional radiation developed at the time of the resurrection. This book, co-written by Fanti and Saverio Gaeta, is the exciting account of a discovery and the story of the extraordinary historical events of the most precious and revered relic of Christianity.

So why all the controversy? The book apparently documents the recent Shroud testing done by Fanti and his research team at the University of Padua and reports the results of some chemical and mechanical tests they performed which they claim "confirms that the Shroud dates back to the 1st century." A pretty powerful statement for sure, but that is not the major problem. You can find a more detailed report about their research on the Vatican Insider website (in English). Here is an excerpt from their article:

"The research includes three new tests, two chemical ones and one mechanical one. The first two were carried out with an FT-IR system, one using infra-red light and the other using Raman spectroscopy. The third was a multi-parametric mechanical test based on five different mechanical parameters linked to the voltage of the wire. The machine used to examine the Shroud's fibres and test traction, allowed researchers to examine tiny fibres alongside about twenty samples of cloth dated between 3000 BC and 2000 AD.

"Final results show that the Shroud fibres examined produced the following dates, all of which are 95% certain and centuries away from the medieval dating obtained with Carbon-14 testing in 1988: the dates given to the Shroud after FT-IR testing, is 300 BC ±400, 200 BC ±500 after Raman testing and 400 AD ±400 after multi-parametric mechanical testing. The average of all three dates is 33 BC ±250 years.

"The tests were carried out using tiny fibres of material extracted from the Shroud by micro-analyst Giovanni Riggi di Numana who passed away in 2008 but had participated in the1988 research project and gave the material to Fanti through the cultural institute Fondazione 3M."

That last paragraph goes to the core of the controversy. In a separate Vatican Insider article (in Italian - use Google or Bing to translate the page) was the following statement from Mgr. Cesare Nosiglia, the Archbishop of Turin (via auto translation with some additional corrections):

"Yesterday, a note from the Turin International Centre for Sindonology and the Archbishop of Turin, Mgr. Cesare Nosiglia, put stakes in the work of Fanti. No serious' 'value'' of the results can be attributed to any of the research on the Shroud reported in the book, said the Papal Custodian of the Shroud of Turin, Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia. ''Since there is no degree of safety on the authenticity of the materials on which these experiments were carried out to the Shroud cloth - reads a note of Monsignor Nosiglia - the owners and custodians cannot recognize any serious value to the results of these alleged experiments.''"

The article goes on to include Fanti's reply to the allegations that the samples he used were invalid. In part, he states (with some additional corrections):

"In short, there were samples taken of Shroud material in both 1978 and in 1988. In both cases, they were approved by the Custodian of the Shroud, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Anastasio Ballestrero, with the consent of the owner, Umberto II of Savoy in 1978, and Pope John Paul II in 1988. Involved with the Shroud for a long time, prof. Fanti received some fibers taken from the Shroud in 1978 by prof. Ray Rogers, one of the American scientists of the STURP team.

"But in 1988, Giovanni Riggi di Numana, the expert who cut the Shroud samples for examination by C14, and with the agreement of Cardinal Ballestrero, kept some of the fibers of the Shroud and collected fragments of aspirated blood and dust samples in between the linen and the Holland cloth. The conditional is a must, as no record was drawn up of the levy for the C14, let alone a semi-official collection like that. But it is very likely that after the death of Riggi, in 2008, a part of the material held by a dedicated foundation has come to Fanti. After the death of Ballestrero, card. Saldarini issued a statement, asking that any Shroud materials be returned. But it seems that no one has complied with the request.

"All of this to conclude: prof. Fanti's research was carried out on the Shroud and of course the material was authentic, even if it was outside the control of the International Centre of Sindonology. And besides, 25 years after the C14 examination, whose own credibility Fanti's work further crumbles, perhaps one might begin to assume that a continuation should be considered of the research program created by STURP, the Shroud of Turin Research Project, an international group of scientists who produced a wealth of incredible scientific results after testing the Shroud in 1978.

So the biggest issue so far seems to be the validity of Fanti's samples and I guess we will all have to wait and see how this plays out. Remember that even if the samples are absolutely authentic, if they were not formally authorized for such testing, the results will never be recognized by the authorities. However, there is still the other issue (which I alluded to above) that must be considered. Fanti's claims are based on the use of accepted scientific techniques, but those techniques have never before been applied to the dating of an archaeological sample nor established as a valid dating mechanism in their own right. For this dating technique (and Fanti's dramatic claims) to be taken seriously by the scientific community, it is essential that his research be submitted for evaluation by a qualified, scientific peer review committee and published in a credible scientific journal. As far as I can see from the available information, that has not yet occurred. Unfortunately, it is far more typical to submit your work to a journal first, have it reviewed and ultimately published in the literature to establish its scientific validity, and then write a commercial book to explain it to the layman. Many quality journals will simply not accept papers that have been previously published in the popular media.

During the STURP years (1977-1981), the team was frequently criticized for being too secretive. However, STURP had a written agreement with the Turin authorities not to release any data prematurely (before the completion of their final report and its appearance in the scientific literature). STURP also understood that many of the important journals they hoped to publish their work in would NEVER accept a paper that had first appeared in the popular media.

I am thrilled that Giulio's new tests shed a positive light on the Shroud and further dispute the radiocarbon dating results, and I am very glad the news broke just before Easter, but I sincerely hope he gets the work into a credible journal soon. Otherwise, it can only be considered anecdotal at best.

March 31, 2013 Editor's Note: In an e-mail today, Giulio Fanti announced that, "the paper entitled 'Non-destructive dating of ancient flax textiles by means of vibrational spectroscopy', has now been accepted with minor revision, and will be published in a scientific journal." The name of the journal and the date of publication were not announced.

More links on this topic: English language article titled Turin Shroud 'is not a medieval forgery' from The Telegraph in the U.K. (quoted on the Drudge Report today) and another article about the book from the QLibri Website (in Italian) and finally, a link to where you can purchase the book online from Amazon.it.

March 29, 2013 Update: This morning I received an e-mail from Enrico Simonato of the International Centre of Sindonology in Turin. They have graciously provided us with the official statements on the Fanti/Gaeta book by the Archbishop and the Centro in English, Spanish and Italian languages so that we could reprint them all here. Our thanks to Enrico and Bruno Barberis, President of the Centro, for providing us with this information. Grazie!

Here is a link to several pages listing the full English language coverage of recent Shroud news stories from Google News. Also, here is a link to Barrie's appearance (via Skype) on CNN International today.

Posted March 28, 2013 - Updated March 29, 2013

First Shroud App, 'Sindone 2.0' Now Available

Sindone 2.0
Sindone 2.0
(Shroud 2.0)

The Shroud is now officially in the 21st century with the announcement of the first official Shroud of Turin app for the iPhone®. Named "Sindone 2.0" (Shroud 2.0), the app was produced by HaltaDefinizione® in Italy upon authorization of the Turin Archdiocese and in collaboration with the Diocesan Commission for the Holy Shroud and the Holy Shroud Museum.. Here is a link to an English language article from the Vatican Insider titled, The Holy Shroud is on iPad and becomes 2.0 with all the details. Included below is a brief quote from the article:

"In the technology era also the Holy Shroud becomes "2.0": as of Holy Friday 2013, the coming 29th of March, on the online Apple store it will be possible to download - in a double multilingual version, free and with fee - the first official App dedicated to the Holy Linen, created in conjunction with the special television Exposition which is scheduled on Rai Uno at Easter Eve." The app allows users to "...explore the Shroud in detail, through access to an exellent high definition photograph that offers features that are almost invisible to the naked eye, elements that not even the traditional Expositions have ever allowed to observe."

You can get a free preview (in Italian) of the app in operation by viewing the video clip available on the OGGI.it website.

Here is the complete text of an English language article titled, The Shroud of Turin Goes Mobile, published today by the Zenit.org News Service in Rome:

The Shroud of Turin Goes Mobile
Shroud 2.0 iPad App Gives Users Detailed Look into Famed Relic
By Junno Arocho Esteves

ROME, March 28, 2013 (Zenit.org) - The Shroud of Turin, the linen cloth believed to be the burial shroud of Christ, has now gone mobile. A new app available for the Apple iPad, Shroud 2.0, allows users to view the Shroud in High Definition as well as obtain information on the different aspects of the relic.

The Shroud, one of the most well-known and debated symbols of Christianity, bears the image of a man who has suffered scourging and crucifixion, and is believed to be the burial linen used to wrap the body of Christ. Although there is no definitive or conclusive evidence, the Shroud is venerated as a reminder of the suffering Christ endured for all mankind.

In his 1988 visit to the Cathedral of Turin, where the Shroud is currently kept, Blessed Pope John Paul II reflected on the symbol God's love portrayed in the linen, describing it as "the mirror of the Gospel."

"The Shroud is [...]an image of God's love as well as of human sin. It invites us to rediscover the ultimate reason for Jesus' redeeming death," the late Holy Father said. "In the incomparable suffering that it documents, the love of the One who "so loved the world that he gave his only Son" is made almost tangible and reveals its astonishing dimensions. In its presence believers can only exclaim in all truth: 'Lord, you could not love me more!', and immediately realize that sin is responsible for that suffering: the sins of every human being."

The application, which was designed and produced by the Haltadefinizione company, was created in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Turin, the Diocesan Commision for the Holy Shroud and the Museum of the Holy Shroud. The new app is seen as a tool of evangelization to coincide with the Year of Faith.

Shroud 2.0 allows user to explore details of the Shroud with access to high definition photographs that can zoom into areas that are almost invisible to the naked eye. According to a communique on the application, the high definition photos of the Shroud were taken by Haltadefinizione in 2008. The same technology was used to photograph Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece, 'The Last Supper.' The digitization process recomposed 1649 snapshots into one single image of the shroud into one single 12 billion pixel image.

The app, which will be available soon on the Android operating system, will give people the opportunity to view a "Digital Exposition of the Shroud" on their iPads. The application offers, for the first time in the Shroud's history, the most detailed image ever achieved and made available to the general public.

Shroud 2.0 will be available for download on the Apple App Store on Good Friday, March 29th.

Posted March 28, 2013

National Shrine of the Holy Shroud to Open Soon

From the Richard Orareo Collection
From the Richard Orareo Collection

I am pleased to report that the National Shrine of the Holy Shroud, founded by STERA, Inc. Board of Directors member Richard Orareo, will soon be opening in Wabash, Indiana. I will be visiting Richard and the Shrine in April and plan to include an in depth article and new photographs in our May 2013 update. In the interim, here is a link to a new article in the Fort Wayne, Indiana News-Sentinel titled "Collector plans area national shrine, museum on Shroud of Turin," that provides many more details. Our warmest congratulations to Richard on this excellent achievement! Here is a brief excerpt from the article that talks about the beautiful building Richard acquired to house the collection:

The building, which was constructed in 1936 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built as a movie studio by Mark Honeywell, a Wabash native and founder of what is now the Honeywell corporation, Orareo said. Honeywell made movies in the 1930s as a hobby.

It later served as the clubhouse for the Wabash Country Club, whose golf course adjoins the 7-acre property, and then the Studio Eleven restaurant, which went out of business, Orareo said.

The four-story, Tudor-style structure features Indiana limestone on some of the exterior, grand interior oak woodwork and leaded-glass windows.

Posted March 28, 2013

BREAKING NEWS!
Pope Authorizes Television Exhibition of Shroud on March 30, 2013

It was announced this morning that Pope Benedict XVI, as one of his last acts as Pontiff, has authorized a television only exhibition of the Shroud of Turin on March 30, 2013 (Holy Saturday) directly from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist where the cloth is permanently stored. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail I received this morning from my friend Bruno Barberis, President of the International Center for the Study of the Shroud (Centro Internazionale di Sindonologia) in Turin with the details:

I would like to give you in advance an important piece of news. On March 30th (Holy Saturday) in the late afternoon (Italian time) in the Turin Cathedral there will be a TV exposition of the Holy Shroud. The exposition will be broadcast by the RAI Uno television network. This event, connected with the "Year of Faith," will happen 40 years after the first and unique TV exposition of the Shroud on November 23rd, 1973. The Shroud will remain in its room in the Cathedral and the length of the exposition will be around one hour. On March 1st in Turin at 11.00am a press conference will be held regarding this special exposition.

It is likely that footage from this exposition will be picked up and shown by other television broadcast networks around the world and on the internet. I will do my best to keep you updated as more details become available. In the interim, you can also check our Facebook page, where I can quickly post any news that may come in while I am traveling and lecturing.

March 9, 2013 Update: For more information on the unprecedented occasion of this first "technological" exhibition of the Shroud, check out the news page (in English) of the Collegamento pro Sindone website by Emanuela Marinelli. The page includes more details on Pope Benedict's decision to display the Shroud and a message from Msgr. Cesare Nosiglia, the current Archbishop of Turin. As always, our deepest thanks to Emanuela for making this information available so quickly. Grazie!

Here is a link to a more recent and detailed article in the online version of the Italian publication Gazzetta del Sud (this version is in English) about the upcoming "technological exposition" of the Shroud: http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/news/37027/Pope-Emeritus-orders-TV-broadcast-of-Shroud-of-Turin.html.

March 26, 2013 Update: Included in this update is a schedule of the upcoming television exposition of the Shroud by RAI UNO along with some new links to additional information about the event. First is a link to Emanuela Marinelli's Collegamento pro Sindone website News Page (in English) that includes detailed descriptions of the scheduled programs (and much more). Next is a video from the Rome Reports TV News Agency (in English) describing the event and providing some additional details. According to their article, 300 people will be in attendance during the live broadcast of the Shroud. Finally is a link to the RAI UNO streaming video page where they will broadcast the Shroud live online (in Italian). Here is the schedule:

March 27, 2013: It was announced this morning that Pope Francis will introduce the Shroud for the television exposition. Here ia a link to an ANSA news article (in English) with the details.

Posted February 27, 2013 - Updated March 9, 2013 - Updated March 26, 2013

George Noory's "Beyond Belief" TV Program with Barrie Schwortz to Premiere Online Good Friday

Watch the full interview here: Barrie Schwortz discusses the Shroud of Turin on George Noory's Beyond Belief!

A new program about the Shroud with George Noory, host of the Coast to Coast AM radio program, will premiere online on Good Friday, March 29, 2013, on the Beyond Belief television program on the Gaiam TV network. The one hour show features an interview with Barrie Schwortz and also includes a closeup examination of a lifesize Shroud replica. You can view a preview clip of the program by playing the above video. Please note that the above text link to the full interview will be activated on Friday and GaiamTV subscribers will get a first look at the interview on March 29th at 7pm EST. After the first airing this link will redirect to a landing page where the interview will be permanently available on demand. You can access and view the program free of charge by using the 10 day FREE Trial offered on the Gaiam TV website. Schwortz will also appear on the Coast to Coast AM radio program Thursday night at 10:00pm PDT.

Posted March 26, 2013

Shroud.com Celebrates 17th Anniversary on January 21, 2013

Every January for the past 16 years, I have waited to the last minute to write this introduction, and today is no exception. It is 10:15 p.m. on January 20th as I start writing this with the intention of having the update go online in less than two hours, at midnight. And every time I write this introduction to our anniversary update, it is always with the intention of saying something new and fresh, but it seems that every year I come back to the same theme: This website would not be possible without the cooperation and participation of all of the researchers, historians, scientists and scholars in the world who allow us to publish their work or have written articles specifically for us and all of our loyal viewers (around 600,000 of you last year) who visit the site regularly and read millions of our pages a year! By being there, you make our efforts truly satisfying and worthwhile. We could not do this without you so thank you all for making this possible!

This is a particularly exciting update for us, in that we are premiering the first four issues of Shroud Spectrum International, arguably the most important journal in the history of Sindonology. In addition, we have completed the BSTS Newsletter archives with some important "bonus material," added four new papers and dozens of new links, updated the Valencia Congress page and included a Special Feature on The Shroud and the Chinese Bible. And that is just a partial list! We believe there is enough new material to keep you busy until our next update so let's get to it!

Here is the Update Table of Contents:

Posted January 21, 2013

Shroud Spectrum International On Shroud.com!

Shroud Spectrum International No. 1 Cover
Shroud Spectrum International No. 1

As we proudly announced in our November 2012 update, Dorothy Crispino, editor and publisher of Shroud Spectrum International, the first and only peer reviewed journal dedicated solely to the study of the Shroud, recently granted STERA, Inc. permission to bring this important journal to the internet. This is only possible thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Stephen E. Jones, BSTS Member living in Western Australia, who graciously volunteered to do all the scanning and optical character recognition and Ian Wilson, who provided Stephen with the original issues and valuable input. Today's update includes the first four issues (# 1 through # 4), originally published in 1981 and 1982. We will continue to add more issues in each future update until the complete 42 issue collection is archived in its entirety here on this website.

Since many scholars over the years have used articles from Spectrum as references in their scientific and academic papers, we have retained all the original page numbers and page layouts so the new online versions will remain consistent with the earlier printed references. Also, we have optimized all the photographs and illustrations that accompany the articles and minimized the compression of the pdf files so that the illustrations are the best quality possible. We are sure you will find these truly important journals useful in your studies of the Shroud.

Posted January 21, 2013

BSTS Newsletter Archive Completed! (with Bonus Material)

BSTS Newsletter No. 76 Cover
BSTS Newsletter No. 76

In November 2012 we updated the British Society for the Turin Shroud page and included the ten remaining issues necessary to complete the archive of every issue of the BSTS Newsletter published since 1982 (# 1 through # 75). Now, to round out the collection, we have added a series of five monographs by noted scholars (including esteemed BSTS members Noel Currer-Briggs, Lennox Manton and Dr. Michael Clift and Deirdre O'Sullivan of the School of Archaeological Studies, Leicester University), that were presented at various BSTS meetings in the 1980's and 1990's. Topics include "Byzantine Frescoes and the Turin Shroud," "The Cappadocian Frescoes and the Turin Shroud" (both with many color illustrations), "St. Bee's Man - and What 14th Century Shrouds Actually Looked Like," "The Shroud In Greece" and "The Patient In The Shroud." Consider them BSTS "Bonus Material." Today's update also includes the latest December 2012 issue (# 76) which, as always, contains a number of interesting and informative articles by Michel Bergeret, Yannick Clment, Mark Guscin, Sammeli Juntunen, Andrew Willie and Ian Wilson. And of course, we will continue to add each new issue in the future. These newsletters provide a wonderful view of the history and evolution of Sindonology over the past thirty years and continue to play an important role in the Shroud world today.

Posted January 21, 2013

New Papers Added To Website

One of Two New Papers by Kelly Kearse
One of Two New Papers by Kelly Kearse

After a careful review, the STERA, Inc. Editorial Review Committee has selected three papers to publish in this update. Two are new papers and one is a revised and updated version of a paper we originally published in August 2012. As an additional bonus, we recently obtained permission to reprint a very rare and important paper from 1934 by Fr. Peter Rinaldi. The included papers are divided into two different categories, Scientific and Religion and Philosophy. Of course, you will also find them permanently archived on the Scientific Papers & Articles page or the Religion and Philosophy page and the Website Library page of the site. Here are the new additions:

Scientific Papers & Articles

Religion and Philosophy Papers

Posted January 21, 2013

Valencia Conference Update

Valencia Conference Update
Valencia Conference Update

We are pleased to announce that the Valencia Congress page of this site has been updated to include another of the excellent papers presented at the April 2012 event. The new paper, by CES member Andrs Brito from the Canary Islands, was one of my favorites at the congress as it discusses in detail how the media typically deals with the Shroud (the subject of several of my own editorials over the years). Andrs has a Ph.D. in Information Science and cites many specific examples in his excellent paper titled, Sharing the Shroud - Comunicar la Síndone (En Espaol).

The Proceedings of the I International Congress on the Holy Shroud in Spain are now available. They consist of a 7 DVD package with the entire video recording of all the presentations in Spanish and English as well as their transcriptions in bilingual format. To order, you must contact the CES directly by e-mail at ces@linteum.com. On orders from abroad, buyers must make an advance deposit to the CES bank account, a deposit worth the price of the DVDs + shipping charges. For U.S.A. addresses, it would be a total amount of 48,15 (36 the price of the DVDs + 12,15 shipping charge). You will also need to check the exchange rates the day you transfer the funds (which must be made in euros). You can easily do this online using the Universal Currency Converter, which will convert any world currencies into euros. If you are interested, please let the CES know by e-mail and send them your full postal address and the notification that you have made the deposit. As soon as the deposit arrives in their bank account, they will send you the package. Their current account number (for deposits from abroad) is: POPUESMM. ES76 0075 0465 4906 0033 1228.

Posted January 21, 2013

Links To More Information

Pattern Recognition
Pattern Recognition

Over the past few months we accumulated a large number of links to valuable Shroud related materials that appear elsewhere on the internet. Although we cannot link to every Shroud article, website or blog, we try to make available on Shroud.com a representative sampling of the best materials currently available. To keep things more organized, we have divided the links into several categories.. Of course, we have also archived them to our Scientific Papers & Articles, Religion & Philosophy or Links To More Information pages. Happy browsing!

Papers & Articles Links

Video & Audio Links

The Night of the Shroud DVD (La Notte della Sindone)
The Night of the Shroud DVD
(La Notte della Sindone)
Posted January 21, 2013

New Books Added To Booklist Page

Glastonbury, the Templars and the Sovran Cloth by Juliet Faith
Glastonbury, the Templars and the Sovran Cloth by Juliet Faith

The Shroud Booklist page has been updated with a number of new books. Our sincere thanks, as always, to Emanuela Marinelli, for her consistent and generous contributions in making this the definitive Shroud booklist on the internet. This marks her 64th update to the list since 1996! Here are some of the new books:

Posted January 21, 2013

Shroud Speakers Directory Updated

Richard Bernatchez
Richard Bernatchez

I am very pleased to announce that Richard Bernatchez, founder of Faith Based Communications (FBC), has been added to our Shroud Speakers Directory page. FBC was established to provide presentations/exhibits to groups of any size on subjects related to Christian Faith and is currently making presentations on the Shroud of Turin. And of course, the page contains another 25 speakers available for Shroud lectures or presentations in different parts of the U.S. and around the world.

Posted January 21, 2013

The Shroud and the Chinese Bible - Special Feature

The Shroud and the Chinese Bible (Photo courtesy Eric Chan)
The Shroud and the Chinese Bible (Photo courtesy Eric Chan)

In our August 2012 update, we included a Chinese translation of a Current Anthropology Article on the Shroud of Turin which was provided to us by noted Shroud scholar and archaeologist William Meacham in Hong Kong. Bill felt this might be the only information about the Shroud available anywhere online in Chinese. Shortly afterwards, I received a phone call from Eric Chan, a devoted Shroud student who also lives in Hong Kong. He told me the story of the first Chinese bible, translated and published in 1968 by Italian priest Father Gabriele Allegra, which included an Enrie Shroud photograph on the first page! Eric, who owns one of the bibles, was kind enough to make some photographs, collect some information and put together an article titled Turin Shroud included in Catholic Chinese Bible that provides us with some background on Fr. Allegra and his work. Interestingly, he was beatified in September 2012. Eric is now in direct contact with Bill and they are currently planning some future Shroud activities together in the Hong Kong area. Our sincere thanks to Eric for making this truly fascinating information available to us.

Posted January 21, 2013

News From STERA, Inc.

First, I want to extend a very special "thank you" to all of our friends who made contributions to STERA, Inc. last year. Your generosity, friendship and continued support are deeply appreciated.

STERA, Inc. held their second annual Board of Directors meeting on December 16, 2012. Due to the holidays, the meeting was a very brief one and only a few items of business were attended to. One topic of discussion was the upcoming 17th anniversary update and the continued growth of the website, including the first issues of Shroud Spectrum International. Another topic was fundraising, and once again the board encouraged me to actively pursue it as part of my daily operations. As I've mentioned before, fundraising is probably the hardest part of this job for me. But I have an obligation to STERA, Inc. to appeal to our viewers for support. Since we have just started a new year, let me remind you that you can safely make contributions online using our Secure Contribution Form. You can also contribute by Mail or by telephone at 719-689-2217 (between the hours of 12:00 noon to midnight, M.T.). Of course, any purchases made from the Website Store page of the site also directly support STERA, Inc.

As further incentive and to say thank you for your contributions, we offer contributors a number of excellent gifts for their generosity:

Contribution - - - - - - Free Gift
$100.00 - $299.00 - Set of 2 Shroud Lithographs
$300.00 - $599.00 - Shroud Lithographic Poster
$600.00 - $999.00 - Both Lithographs and Poster
$1000.00 (or more) - All the above plus Miniature Shroud Replica on Cotton

Thank you again for your support!

Barrie Schwortz
President
Posted January 21, 2013

"Third Encounter of the Two Linens" Conference Rescheduled

As I reported in our last update, a conference titled, "Third Encounter of the Two Linens," sponsored by the Pontifical University in Rome, was originally scheduled to be held at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center in Israel from November 25 to December 1, 2012. However, due to the political situation at the time, the conference was postponed and is now tentatively rescheduled to take place in June 2013. We will update you as soon as the details and dates are finalized. The conference deals specifically with the Shroud of Turin and the Tilma Cloak of Tepeyac (aka Our Lady of Guadalupe). These are the stated objectives of the event:

To pair off the two cloths (the Shroud of Turin and the tilma cloak of Tepeyac) that have had the greatest impact on the Church throughout history in order to:
1. Appreciate their evangelizing, historical and scientific value.
2. Reflect upon the interplay between these two gifts of God to the world for the evangelization of the XXI century.
3. Determine, in the light of Shroud science, what research should be done on the tilma containing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The conclusions and proposals will be presented to the Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera.

With many invited speakers from around the world, the Encounter will consist of presentations by experts and round table discussions. Among the invited speakers are Prof. Adolfo Orozco and Dr. Jose Aste Tonsmann from Mexico, Prof. Bruno Barberis, Piero Savarino, Paolo Di Lazzaro, Fr. Hector Guerra and Fr. Gianfranco Berbenni from Italy, Dr. Alfonso Sanchez Hermosilla from Spain, Dr. John and Rebecca Jackson and Barrie Schwortz from the USA and Dr. Petrus Soons from Panama.

Posted January 21, 2013

Lecture Schedule for 2013

Barrie Schwortz Lecturing in Warsaw, Poland in April 2012
Barrie Schwortz Lecturing in Warsaw, Poland in April 2012
Photo ©2012 Janusz Rosikon

Once again, I have a rather busy schedule of lectures starting in March. Viewers often write me asking where and when I might be giving Shroud presentations, so I thought I would publish my upcoming schedule in case I happen to be in your area. If so, please drop by and say hello. Please understand that the times and venues are still subject to change. I will do my best to update them before the events if necessary. (Note: dates below include travel days).

Posted January 21, 2013

Some Interesting Statistics

Just in case you are interested, in calendar year 2012 Shroud.com had just under 600,000 visitors that generated 8.7 million hits, viewed 7.4 million files, viewed 1.9 million pages and generated 249 GB of bandwidth! We thank each and every one of you for your continued support and participation!

Posted January 21, 2013

The Next Update

It is rather difficult to determine exactly when the next update will go online as I am still in the last throes of finishing this update! However, based on my travel schedule through the spring, it will probably be May or June before the next update is completed. Of course, it will include more issues of Shroud Spectrum International, more books, papers and articles, a report on all my travels and a few interesting surprises. So thank you for being there, have a great spring and we'll see you in a few months!

Posted January 21, 2013

Archived Website News pages: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996


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