For centuries Christians have attributed a first-century date to the Shroud of Turin. Nuclear engineer Robert Rucker says that his latest research on the shroud verifies that.
“The Shroud of Turin is the second-most valuable possession of the human race next to the Bible itself,” Rucker told CNA. The shroud is currently preserved in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud adjacent to St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin (Torino), Italy.
For more than 10 years, Rucker has studied the physics of the disappearance of the body of Jesus and its imprint on the shroud. His website, Shroud Research, challenges conclusions that the shroud dates to the period of 1260 to 1380 A.D., leading skeptics to conclude it is a medieval fake.
In 1988, scientists used tiny samples snipped from the shroud to determine the amount of carbon 14 isotopes they contained, destroying the samples in the process. The radioactive carbon 14 isotope is a variant of carbon-containing excess neutrons, which are particles smaller than atoms. Over time, carbon 14 decays into nitrogen 14 in organic materials such as bone and plant matter. The ratio of carbon 14 atoms remaining in a sample provides the data needed to estimate the sample’s age.
Rucker said his calculations show that the 1988 carbon 14 dating is erroneous because it does not take into account the radiation emitted from Jesus’ body at the resurrection, which included neutrons that were absorbed by the shroud and formed new carbon 14 atoms, thus leading to a misinterpretation of the data.
“Carbon 14 dates can be vastly wrong if something has changed the ratio of c-14 to c-12 in the sample, other than the decay of the carbon 14,” Rucker explained. “There have been six different explanations for the carbon date of 1260-1380. The first explanation was in a letter to the editor of Nature magazine in 1989. Tom Philips, who holds a Ph.D. in particle physics, suggested to Nature that the most obvious explanation is that new carbon 14 atoms were produced by neutron absorption” in the shroud.
“That proposal,” Rucker said, “was never followed up on until I did the nuclear analysis computer calculations in 2014.”
Rucker earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor as well as professional engineering certificates in nuclear engineering and mechanical engineering.
Bolstering his credentials are 38 years of experience in the nuclear power industry, which called for making nuclear analysis computer calculations related to nuclear reactor design and statistical analysis of experimental data. He has been researching the shroud since 2013 and has conducted nuclear analysis computer calculations related to its date.
Paola Conti-Puorger, who holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering and a postgraduate degree in shroud studies from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, is a parishioner of St. Thomas and manages its permanent Othonia exhibit on the shroud, which includes a photographic reproduction, a 3D hologram, and a bronze likeness of Jesus lying in the tomb before his resurrection, as revealed by the imprint on the shroud.
Othonia is a research center based in Rome devoted to preserving, promoting, and disseminating knowledge about the shroud. It is part of the Science and Faith Institute within the Athenaeum.
“Rucker has studied the shroud for years and can offer an authoritative word about the scientific research on it,” she told CNA.
“The shroud is the very best news we can receive in this life: that our sins are forgiven, that we are loved, that we have an important dignity, that we are called to this image within ourselves, and that we are called to love with the same love. This is the truth and real happiness of humanity,” Conti-Puorger said.
“It is like contemplating the Gospel and seeing it very alive. Like the Eucharist, Christ’s body and blood are there. This is a living presence. It’s not a relic,” she said.
In 2015, Pope Francis prayed before the shroud and during an Angelus address said: “The shroud attracts [us] toward the martyred face and body of Jesus.”
He continued: “At the same time, it pushes [us] toward the face of every suffering and unjustly persecuted person. It pushes us in the same direction as the gift of Jesus’ love.”
Neither the pope nor his immediate predecessors have made any pronouncements on the authenticity of the shroud.
The shroud has been venerated for centuries in northern Italy where it was guarded by the powerful Savoy family. In 1983, ownership was granted to the pope. When it was exhibited in 1898, permission was granted for photography. It was shown to be a natural negative image and beyond the competence of a medieval forger.
In 1981, an international team of scientists with the Shroud of Turin Research Project determined that the image shows a “scourged, crucified man” not produced by an artist. They said it tested positive for blood. But how the image was produced is a problem that “remains unsolved.”
“The shroud came searching for us,” Conti-Puorger said. “It came to St. Thomas providentially, so I think it is the Lord himself who is calling people to come.”
“There are people searching for many things,” Father Bill Ashbaugh, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, told CNA. “They often think that science contradicts faith. But it’s just the opposite. Science is a help to faith.”
