The next exhibition of the Shroud will be held in Turin from April 10 to May 15, 2010. (Sindone News n. 46, December 2008).

From August 14 to 17, 2008 the International Congress on the Shroud entitled "The Shroud of Turin: Perspectives on a Multifaceted Enigma" took place in Columbus, Ohio (USA). You can also check out their website at http://ohioshroudconference.com/

Pope, exhibition in the spring of 2010 - The Pope has authorized a new exhibition of the Shroud for the spring of 2010. He has personally announced it to the pilgrims of Turin archdiocese, received in Paul VI hall in the Vatican. “I’m glad - the Pope has said after having summed up the pastoral program of the diocese of Turin - to meet your great expectation and to grant your Archbishop’s desire, allowing that in the spring of 2010 another solemn exhibition of the Shroud takes place.” A warm applause of some minutes welcomed the Pope’s words. “If the Lord  gives me life and health, I hope to come, too”. So the Pope, improvising, has announced his desire to attend the exhibition. “It will be a very propitious occasion - he continued referring to the Shroud - to contemplate that mysterious Face, that silently speaks to the heart of men, inviting them to recognize God’s face in it”. (ANSA, Vatican City, June 2, 2008).

Easter: BBC film, test on Holy Shroud must be performed again – Doubts on medieval Carbon dating carried out in 1989 by Carbon 14 - New Carbon 14 investigation must be started on the Holy Shroud to establish its age once and for all: it is what emerges from a film that will be broadcasted tomorrow evening on BBC2, “Shroud of Turin”, in which a 1989 test is questioned that defined the relic “a medieval forgery”. The information is given in a bulletin of the producer house Performance Films. Outstanding moment of the film (that will be broadcasted in Italy on Monday, in “Porta a porta” (Door to door) is the request of new tests by Professor Christopher Ramsey, director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit,  the same university laboratory that decreed that the Shroud was not Jesus’ burial sheet. John Jackson, a physicist from the USA who contributed to the film, has developed a new hypothesis based on technologies of dating by Carbon 14 unknown when the Shroud underwent the test about twenty years ago. Those technologies could explain how a linen sheet really from Jesus’ time could resulted younger by the C 14 test. Ramsey has begun to collaborate with Jackson on this hypothesis and their work is reported in “Shroud of Turin”, along with the historical evidences that date the Shroud much earlier than the Middle Age suggested by the 1989 test. The Oxford professor says he has “an open mind” and he doesn’t want to foresee the results of the new tests: “Between the radiocarbon measurements and the other evidences we have about the Shroud there does seem to be a conflict on how to interpret those evidences. And for that reason I think that everyone who has worked in this area, radiocarbon scientists and all of the other experts, need to have a critical look at the evidences that they’ve come up with in order to work out some kind of coherent story that fits and tells us the truth on the history of this intriguing piece of cloth” (ANSA, London, March 21, 2008).

Shroud: in Novara the biggest image in the world exhibited – Since this morning the Holy Shroud’s biggest image existing in the world (21 x 6 metres) has been exhibited. It stands out in front of the Dome columns and is the symbol of the 2008 edition of “Passio”, the review of the Diocese of Novara that wants to be “a plan to express, in the culture and the art, the human and Christian values inborn in the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.” And it is just the topic of the Shroud (a 1:1 image is placed inside the Dome) which is central in “Passio 2008”. The event was also attended by professor Pierluigi Baima Bollone, a sindonologist and the honorary president of the International Centre of Sindonology, who returned on the topic of the dating of the Sacred Sheet. Recently Christopher Bronk Ramsey, director of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator, the successor of the man who had coordinated the job that in 1988 had brought to giving the Shroud a Middle Age dating, had stated that the possibility exists that at that time the scientists could have been wrong. “The studies – Professor Baima Bollone has explained – were carried out in three times. The sampling of the cloth, the works in the laboratories (Tucson, Zurich and Oxford) and the statistic elaboration of the data. Well, the participation of Bronk Ramsey could make reference just in the statistic elaboration: new works on ancient cloths, if inserted in the statistic analysis, could give different results from the 1988 ones, backdating the Shroud.” Professor Baima Bollone has then explained the difficulty to create relationships between scientists and sindonologists: “At that time the Oxford scholars explicitly asked not to have contacts with the Shroud experts – he stated – and from then it has always been like this, even if, perhaps, even the least collaboration could have supplied positive results. For my part, I’m always available for a debate.” (ANSA, February 6, 2008).

The First Digital Photograph of the Shroud of Turin - An extraordinary high definition photograph - On 22 January 2008 HAL9000 took a high definition photograph of the Turin Shroud. The realization of this incredible photographic record was made possible through HAL9000’s receiving of permission from the Holy See on the occasion of the Shroud being temporarily removed to the new sacristy in the Cathedral. This transfer was carried out following extensive checks on the security systems in the chapel and on the reliquary which holds the Shroud.

The digital shots were taken using electro–optic equipment and robotic machines thus the photos were taken under strict conditions and from a distance of 30cm to provide full protection for the safety of the Cloth.

This photographic campaign availed of the technical assistance of Nital Inc. for shooting systems and ADL Inc, for mechanical systems. The excellent state of the art Nikon equipment allowed for the shooting of 158 gigabytes of detail which will at the end of processing generate a unique image of the shroud to within onefive-hundredth of a millimetre.

The limited availability of access to the Shroud to take these once only photos led to the necessary adoption of an error free system and for this reason led to the making use of a real-time calculation system using AMD Opteron x86 64 bit technology to guarantee the perfect capture of each single image.

The Shroud’s total protection from possible chemical physical alteration due to light exposure was guaranteed by the use of protective systems, tested and approved by the Photometric’s Laboratory at the Rome Central Institute for restoration, systems which were also adopted in the shooting of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

The adoption of strict access procedures, advanced clean rooms and constant monitoring of temperature and athmosphere guaranteed the protection of the Shroud from possible damage or contamination due to the photographic process and workers’ presence.

The first phase of processing has allowed for the creation of a detailed reproduction to original size and a grand scale reproduction of 12 metres in length which are on exhibition in the Novara Cathedral and in the square opposite and are a symbol for the cultural project Passio 2008. (Press Release HAL9000, February 5, 2008)

Shroud, the mystery is reopened: “It is more ancient” – Scoop of the English TV BBC: a new test of Carbon 14 will be carried out in Oxford. The author of the film, David Rolfe, explains: “The doubts arise from the conservation of the linen.” (Enrico Franceschini, La Repubblica, R2 Science, January 31, 2008, p. 34-35).

The expert’s climb-down: perhaps it doesn’t date from the 14^th century – “Perhaps wrong tests” – The verdict of carbon 14 had been not questionable: the linen is a medieval fake. But an English scientist has explained to the BBC that that test is not conclusive. (Vittorio Sabadin, La Stampa, Culture & Shows, January 26, 2008, p. 37).