
By William West
As the title of my new book—The Shroud Rises, As the Carbon Date is Buried—suggests, the 1988 carbon date for the Shroud has finally been shown to be seriously flawed.
This fact had long been clear to most Shroud researchers because all the other evidence about the Shroud clearly showed the Shroud is genuine.
Newer dating tests have also indicated the Shroud is 2000 years old.
But the most recent evidence comes from the release of the original raw data from the carbon dating that was kept locked away for 28 years. The data confirms the medieval date assigned to the Shroud was clearly wrong.
In recent years, several articles have appeared in peer-reviewed academic journals supporting this view.
And two Shroud researchers have confirmed the flaws in the carbon dating in new books— Michael Kowalski, author of The Shroud of Christ: Evidence of a 2,000 Year Antiquity, and Joseph G. Marino, author of The 1988 C-14 Dating of the Shroud of Turin—a Stunning Exposé.
As a result of all of this new information, the suggestion that the Shroud is a medieval forgery has finally been laid to rest.
This development is hugely important because the carbon dating was the only thing that ever seemed to challenge the Shroud’s authenticity. So much so, that many people still think it does.

I can assure you it doesn’t.
But there’s more.
Since publishing Riddles of the Shroud—Questions Science Can’t Answer in 2022, I have come across more reasons than ever to believe in the authenticity of this scarred strip of ancient linen cloth carrying an impossible photographic image of Jesus in death.
Most researchers are now more convinced than ever that the Shroud is genuine and this will in time have a profound impact on the world.
Think about it. The Shroud confirms Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It offers details only a witness to the crucifixion and resurrection could know—details that at first seemed odd, but which science has confirmed to be true.
It has microscopic evidence that it came from Jerusalem—in Spring, when Jesus was executed, and blood chemicals consistent with someone who was tortured. There is microscopic evidence that it spent centuries in Eastern Europe before migrating to the West, all backed by graphic historical evidence. And over the past centuries it has passed every scientific test thrown at it—and that now includes the carbon dating.
While belief in the Shroud is not an article of faith, it has helped give birth to the faith of many and strengthened the faith of millions more.
That is important because we live in turbulent times, marked by political strife and shocking wars (Pope Francis has said that World War III has already begun), rapidly growing mental illness (especially among the young) and widespread unbelief. Our own society has exchanged belief in God for belief in nothing.
Clearly, this world needs all the spiritual help it can get.
In my experience giving public talks about the Shroud, it has the power to inspire real enthusiasm, especially among the young, but it can also soften older, hardened hearts.

For its part, the Catholic Church has never criticised the carbon dating. The last thing it wants is to be seen as opposing science, and in the case of the Shroud, the carbon dating is seen by many people as scientific fact.
Thankfully, it’s now clear that it is not.
And, as anyone who has been following Shroud research closely would know, science has shown over and over again that the Shroud is genuine.
One recent example was a news story published September last year when newspapers around the world rushed to report that a new dating technique had dated the Shroud to the first century.
This research had been around for two years, when I first reported it in the Catholic Weekly and included it in my first book. But it was good to see that other media are catching up.
The research in question was carried out by leading researcher Dr Liberato de Caro and colleagues at Italy’s Institute of Crystallography. Dr de Caro, a member of Italy’s National Research Council, used a new X-ray dating method called Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) that was designed specifically to date linen fabric.
WAXS is arguably superior to carbon dating for a range of reasons. Most importantly it isn’t affected by carbon-14 contamination—which is ultimately why the carbon dating got the age of the Shroud so wrong.
But the WAXS dating is only one of several new scientific techniques developed over the past three decades that have confirmed the Shroud is 2000 years old.

Unfortunately, little has been reported about this in the mainstream media, so most people know nothing about it.
At the release of the raw data from the carbon dating reveals “a flawed analysis, false claims, and crucial evidence concealed for almost three decades.”
For a start, few people realise that a media conference about the carbon dating results had to be held prematurely because unknown individuals from the carbon-dating labs leaked results to the media.
So a rushed media conference was held before any data about the tests could be published. The only written evidence provided at the conference was a couple of dates, 1260-1390, chalked on an old blackboard, followed by a provocative exclamation mark.
Four months passed before any data was published. Even when some limited data was published in Nature journal, Shroud scholars could see there were serious flaws in the research and requested access to all the raw data.
But, in an unusual move, the carbon-dating labs and the British Museum, which oversaw the dating, refused to release the data.
It didn’t help that by then, the carbon dating was old news and the media were no longer interested.
Nevertheless, the Shroud researchers kept seeking access to the raw data. Astonishingly, their requests continued to be denied for almost three decades. Finally, a legal request under Britain’s Freedom of Information laws opened up access to the data.
One academic who has been shocked by what has come to light from the data is medieval art historian Thomas de Wesselow (who is not a Christian).

He has summed up: “The carbon dating of the Shroud will probably go down in history as one of the greatest fiascos in the history of science. It would make an excellent case study for any sociologist interested in exploring the ways in which science is affected by professional biases, prejudices and ambitions, not to mention religious (and irreligious) beliefs.”
For many people who for some reason still cling to the carbon dating, even assessments like this will probably continue to go unheeded.
Nevertheless, I wrote The Shroud Rises for ordinary people who are open to the facts. They are facts that have now been confirmed by many experts, to the point where it is no exaggeration to say that the carbon date has been truly buried.
And, given that a range of new dating methods have been developed, it is unlikely that the Shroud will ever be carbon dated again.
Most importantly, the new methods are immune to the carbon-14 contamination that affected the carbon-14 tests. The new tests are non-destructive and don’t require taking the relatively large samples that even “small-sample” carbon dating requires.
For example, the WAXS test only requires a tiny one-millimetre sample and the tests can be repeated many times by separate dating labs.
As a result of all of this, excitement about the Shroud appears to be spreading.
In Ireland images of the face on the Shroud can be seen on billboards and buses. The Catholic Church celebrates its Jubilee this year, and the Shroud will play a role in the celebrations.
Many events focussing on the Shroud are planned around the world. One of the biggest international conferences ever held will be hosted in the United States in the city of St Louis—a conference at which I have been invited to speak.
There will also be a conference in Sydney I have been helping to organise. Details will be released shortly.
To sum up, the Shroud of Turin has risen in a clear and powerful way, thanks partly to the burial of a carbon, and thanks also to many new discoveries that have underlined the Shroud’s astonishing properties.