SCHERERVILLE – A local father-and-son duo has made a commitment to further the examination of, discussion about, and inspiration from one of the most famous garments in history. A forum about the Shroud of Turin is set for the day after Easter Sunday, at St. Michael the Archangel church.
Tom Ross and his son, Father Robert Ross, believe that entertaining the topic of the purported burial cloth of Jesus Christ is faith-affirming. Their first “dynamic presentation,” set for Monday, April 21, will focus not only on the details of the Lord’s passion and death, but also on the depths of love and mercy shown by God for His “Easter people.”
By examining the garment described by some as “the fifth Gospel,” Father Ross hopes that the faith of active Catholics and other Christians will be deepened, and that the hearts and minds of agnostics and atheists will be opened enough to accept the gift of faith.
“In some sense, you could convince the skeptic through showing all this,” said Father Ross, associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel. “My greater desire is to show those who already believe to have these concrete facts to hang their hat on – this is what Jesus went through.”
The Shroud of Turin is named after the Italian city where members of the royal House of Savoy have preserved it since 1578, presently in the city’s Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. The documented history of the linen bearing the image of a naked man’s body that was buffeted by brutal attacks, began in the mid-1300s, when the relic was moved around for safekeeping.
In 1898, the first photographic study of the shroud was completed by Secondo Pia and yielded pictures including negative images that were published around the world to astonished believers. The photos became associated with the Church’s Holy Face of Jesus devotion.
Father Ross said this most studied roll of linen has spawned its own formal scientific field called Sindonology, from the word “sindon,” used in the Gospel of Mark to mean burial cloth. The extensive surveys of the shroud, especially the 1977 Shroud of Turin Research Project, produced no consensus, with some scientists claiming the bloody bodily images were “paintings” using “dilute pigments,” or some kind of photographic trick that predated the craft by hundreds of years. Others reported that when subjected to lasers, the substances were indeed organic material.
In 1988, university-led radiocarbon dating permitted by the Vatican determined that with a high probability, the material dated back to 1260-1390 A.D. However, known repairs to the cloth by members of religious orders and royal houses could have tainted the findings, according to critics. That theory was discounted by some in the study, but more recent scans have found “unidentified abnormalities” within samples.
Some theories, even ones backed up by the latest Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) matching the dates of the linen to an Israeli article from the first century, have been dubbed by some media outlets as “fringe theories.”
The debate could go on indefinitely. However, for many like Tom Ross, the approach to such an object is part observation and part faith. After all, Catholics trust that the Canon of Holy Scriptures including the Synoptic Gospels and that of St. John, spell out the account of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
“Jesus said from the cross, ‘It is finished,’ but that shroud is still bearing testimony today,” Tom Ross said. “Now that we’ve done scientific studies of it, it’s not finished; Christ is still showing us how much He loved us by what he endured.
He added, “That shroud exists for a reason … somehow God allowed this shroud to be protected for hundreds of years.”
The burial cloth was gifted to the Holy See in 1983. Pope St. John Paul II encouraged further scientific study, but also emotionally told the Turin faithful that “the Shroud is an image of God's love as well as of human sin.”
Ross and his son, knowing that the Church has not made an official pronouncement about the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, are aware of the fascination of the faithful. Part of the display that they will show privately to the junior high religious education students and, then, at the public presentation on Easter Monday, is a life-size print that had been on display behind glass in the narthex of the former St. Stephen, Martyr church in Merrillville.
From that print, table-top displays also show close-up and computer-generated enhancements showing the body of a man who was scourged, beaten and ultimately crucified. Additionally, members of the Ross family have assembled historically accurate – to the best of their resources – instruments of punishment that were used during the time of Jesus’ earthly life.
On display will be large nails, a sharp crown of thorns and a flagellum, or scourging whip. These items illustrate that Jesus was treated like a criminal and punished severely. Father Ross wondered, “How could someone survive that?”
He also thinks that those more concrete, tactile objects may inspire those who are not religious to consider what this historic man Jesus accomplished as a sacrifice for all.
“I believe. I want to study this so I can understand the mystery even more about how much Jesus suffered and what was the depth of His love,” Father Ross explained. “I know if my rational reasoning says he's infinite love … but when you have a more visceral reaction – this is the extent to which he loves us – it’s very beautiful.”
Though these items are a stark reminder of the passion of the Lord, the joy of Easter is spelled out for many in the popular verse from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
The Shroud of Turin presentation is set for noon and again at 7 p.m. on April 21 at St. Michael the Archangel church, 1 W. Wilhelm St. For more information, call the parish office at (219) 322-4505.
Caption: Father Robert Ross, associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel church, views instruments of punishment associated with the passion of Jesus Christ, on March 31 at the Schererville parish. Father Ross and his dad Tom Ross will deliver a presentation about the Shroud of Turin, the linen many believe to be the Lord's burial cloth, at the parish on Easter Monday, April 21. (Anthony D. Alonzo photo)
