On Saturday the presentation. Removed the patches sewn
in the XVI century and replaced the backing cloth «Shroud, a risky restoration» Scientists’ polemics on the
cleaning work
by
Marco TOSATTI
VATICAN CITY - There is a controversy on the Shroud: the “restoration”
operation, led in August and being illustrated in Turin next Saturday,
has provoked very strong reactions in the sindonologists’ world.
The elimination of “patches” sewn by the Clare nuns after the fire in Chambéry
and the substitution of backing cloth with a new one are the two main points,
on which a debate has already been opened. It is easy to foresee that the
Saturday press conference will be very heated. The first perplexities regard
the famous “patches”. The patches sewn on the sheet by the Clare nuns in
1534 were an important, meaningful and visual part of the Shroud history
and patrimony. Was it urgent to remove them? Then, there is the problem
of the way the operation has been led. Several voices in the sindonologists
world complain that the operation has been decided by few people in the
utmost reserve. If, as it seems, the next Shroud exhibition is not taking
place until 2023, many wonder why the restoration proposal has not been
the subject of a wider consultation, considering the religious value of
the object. There is also a definitely more technical, but not less important,
side, since the debate on the radiocarbon tests validity is still open.
Many scientists are waiting for Saturday official declaration to give a
complete description of all the preservation treatments, included whichever
cleaning, brushing, or suction, led during the “restoration, so that the
independent investigators can evaluate if involuntarily some damage has
been made.” The scientists are also waiting to have a detailed explanation
of the scientific examinations, the monitoring and the collection of samples,
which have been carried out during the operation. They also wonder if the
new backing cloth has been analyzed as to the presence of chemical residues
or impurities that could affect the Shroud. The fear of some sindonologists
is that the patches elimination and the cloth substitution have compromised
significantly the possibility of “reading” the Shroud history in its secular
development. The world-wide symposium of experts organized by the Archdiocese
of Turin in March 2000 recommended: “A series of experiments specifically
aimed at improving our knowledge for preservation purposes is essential,
particularly considering the remarkable development of the instruments
and the improvements in the non-invasive analytical methods.” This recommendation,
the scientists complain, has not been followed, and they wonder why the
investigators attending that convention, or the scientists of the STURP
(Shroud of Turin Research Project), the scientific group that has probably
carried out the widest and scientifically most coordinated research in
1978, have not been consulted with regard to the alterations or, in case,
called to “monitoring” the operation and collecting the data at the right
time. “Collegamento pro Sindone”, a very active group guided by Prof. Emanuela
Marinelli, has also written to the Pope, the Shroud “owner”, protesting
because the operation has provoked "the loss of precious material: dusts,
pollens, particles of blood and other micro-traces present also in the
up-to-now hidden parts of the Shroud.” The “Collegamento” proposal is that
“the Commission for the preservation of the Holy Shroud may be widened,
under the protection of the Papal Academy of Sciences”: that is, under
the Pope’s more direct control.
