This made sense to Rothschild. No mature CEO of any organization, whether the organization was the Catholic Church or one of the largest public corporations in the world, ever rolls the dice on something that is not 100 percent certain, unless they have no choice but to do so. "You respected Marco Vicente when he was a cardinal and I sense you continue to respect him now that he is pope," Rothschild said.
"Yes, I do." Castle spoke without hesitation. "I admire how he handled this case. He deferred to Morelli"s judgment, much as a field general would defer to a top lieutenant. He agreed to allow Bartholomew to see the Shroud after Morelli argued it made sense to do so."
"Do you think Morelli was right?" Rothschild asked.
Castle thought for a moment before answering. He took a sip of the wine. "It"s a tough judgment call, but I do think Morelli was right."
"How so?" Rothschild asked. "There"s a huge controversy over whether what happened Friday was a miracle or a magic trick."
"I know," Castle said. "But I don"t think the pope minds that controversy. It takes the issue off whether the Shroud is a medieval forgery and puts the world"s attention squarely back on figuring out who Bartholomew really was and what he was all about."
"How about you?" Rothschild asked as he ordered a rare brandy to finish their meal. "Does any of this cause you to doubt your convictions as an atheist?"
"Do you want to know if I came out of this with any glimmer of a belief in G.o.d?" Castle asked with a smile.
"Yes, that"s what I"m asking."
"I"m conflicted, maybe for the first time in my life, if you must know the truth," Castle said. "There was a lot to what Professor Silver at Princeton and Dr. Bucholtz at CERN said. Modern physics is clearly advancing into scientific areas that used to be reserved for religion."
Rothschild smiled slightly, expressing a trace of satisfaction. "I"d like to think that all those articles I"ve been sending you over the past few years on the big bang did not entirely escape your attention. The big bang has always sounded to me a lot like the moment of G.o.d creating the universe that the Bible describes in Genesis. But then, unlike you, I"m not a professed atheist. I"m Jewish and I"m comfortable with G.o.d, as long as n.o.body holds me to going to synagogue on a weekly basis."
Castle appreciated his point. "You"re right, of course, in concluding that when physics begins contemplating G.o.d, I might have no choice other than to do the same. I"d like to believe there is a dimension where I might someday find Anne again. But I don"t know if those are my emotions, not my head, thinking."
"Even for a psychiatrist as accomplished as you, telling that difference is sometimes impossible to do," Rothschild said. "But as to the issue of religion, I"ve fought with you since we first met. You"ve always told me we make up religions to compensate for the unknown-to explain where we came from, or what happens to us when we die. Or that we make up religions to control behavior, to say you will go to Hades if you don"t do exactly what I say. I understand all that. But I"m wondering if you have caught a glimpse of what I always considered the real question."
"What"s that?"
"The question is whether deep down there is an impulse built into us that compels us to create religions and to believe in G.o.d."
"What do you mean?"
"I can explain it to you in Freudian terms, if you want, but tonight I want to say it simpler than that."
"Okay, I"m open to that. Say it simply."
"You can dismiss the religions we create as defective, but you can"t dismiss as a fact the continuing human need to create religions."
"You could well be right," Castle said. "I hate to admit it, but you could well be right."
"Do you think Father Bartholomew had a mission from G.o.d, like he claimed?"
"That"s a harder question," Castle said. "Anne believed he did and I can"t prove that he didn"t. He conveniently escaped treatment before I completed my a.n.a.lysis."
Rothschild realized Castle had made a point he could not refute. "What are you going to do next?" Rothschild asked, moving on to the future.
"I"m going to take a couple of weeks off," Castle answered. "I need some time to recover from this experience. Besides, I did my job for the Vatican the best I could and I got paid generously for it."
"Are you going to go anywhere?"
"Yes, I"m going back to Italy," Castle said. "I can"t get out of my mind something the pope said in our final conference, just before he agreed to allow Bartholomew to see the Shroud in person."
"What"s that?"
"The pope said it worried him that there might just be a Leonardo da Vinci codex buried somewhere in the Vatican archives that explains exactly how Leonardo created the Shroud," Castle said. "In one our last conferences I think I met just the right person to conduct the search for me."
"Who"s that?"
"Dottoressa Francesca Coretti, a Vatican Library senior staff researcher. She has a doctorate in medieval art from the University of Milan. She has been specializing in researching the Shroud for years. If the Vatican archives have some long-lost Shroud codex written by Leonardo da Vinci, I have a hunch Dottoressa Coretti might just be the right person to find it."
"She wouldn"t happen to be attractive, would she?" Rothschild asked slyly.
"As a matter of fact, she is," Castle said with a knowing smile. "I judge her to be in her forties and attractively thin. She has this elegant black hair that matches her jet-black eyes perfectly."
"When are you leaving?" Rothschild asked.
"I"m booked for tomorrow, first-cla.s.s to Rome, departing out of JFK late afternoon," Castle said, picking up the check.
"Makes sense to me," Rothschild replied, very happy to hear the news. "Take my cell phone number with you. I want to be the first to know when you find the codex you"re looking for."
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
My interest in the Shroud of Turin dates back four decades, when I first learned about the Shroud while attending St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1998, I traveled to Turin, Italy, where I had the opportunity to view the Shroud in person multiple times over several days. That Exposition that marked the hundredth anniversary of the 1898 exhibition of the Shroud, when Italian amateur photographer Secondo Pia took the first photographic images of the Shroud.
In researching this book, I was greatly a.s.sisted by John and Rebecca Jackson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. John, as mentioned in the novel, was a princ.i.p.al organizer of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project.
Rebecca graciously provided many excellent comments in reading an early version of the ma.n.u.script. John and Rebecca run the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado and edit the extremely valuable ShroudofTurin.com website.
Barrie Schwortz provided the photographs used in the novel. Barrie was the official photographer of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project. He edits another extremely valuable website, Shroud.com.
In writing this novel, I took the necessary liberties of fictionalizing events of the book and may well have represented the science about the Shroud or the photographic evidence in a manner John and Rebecca Jackson or Barrie Schwortz would dispute.
Neither should John and Rebecca Jackson or Barrie Schwortz be seen as endorsing the novel or the views expressed in the novel.
I am indebted to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, for his continued friendship and his support for my efforts to write a novel about the Shroud of Turin.
The novel benefited greatly from the insightful comments and suggestions of my close personal friend Dr. Stephen Friefeld, M.D., an accomplished surgeon in Springfield, New Jersey, as he closely read the ma.n.u.script throughout the drafting process.
Again, any limitations in telling the medical part of this story are entirely my own, given that my graduate academic training is as a political scientist, not as a medical doctor.
Several books were extremely helpful in conducting the research.
Frederick T. Zugibe"s The Crucifixion of Jesus The Crucifixion of Jesus is an invaluable forensic inquiry into the ancient Roman practice of crucifixion, but also a key treatise on the medical examination of the Shroud of Turin. is an invaluable forensic inquiry into the ancient Roman practice of crucifixion, but also a key treatise on the medical examination of the Shroud of Turin.i Equally important was the two-volume treatise by Raymond E. Brown t.i.tled The Death of the Messiah, The Death of the Messiah, an indispensable biblical a.n.a.lysis of the account of Jesus Christ"s death as told by the New Testament gospels. an indispensable biblical a.n.a.lysis of the account of Jesus Christ"s death as told by the New Testament gospels.ii Among Ian Wilson"s many important books on the Shroud of Turin, I found myself relying upon his 1998 book, The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence That the World"s Most Sacred Relic Is Real. The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence That the World"s Most Sacred Relic Is Real.iii The 2000 book The Turin Shroud: The Ill.u.s.trated Evidence The Turin Shroud: The Ill.u.s.trated Evidenceiv, resulting from Barrie Schwortz"s collaboration with Ian Wilson, was also extremely useful.
For the theory that Leonardo da Vinci created the Shroud of Turin, I found most useful Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince"s 1994 book, Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? The Truth Behind the Centuries-Long Conspiracy of Silence. Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? The Truth Behind the Centuries-Long Conspiracy of Silence.v Two books by Michio Kaku, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretic Physics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, provided an excellent introduction to particle physics: his 1994 book, Hypers.p.a.ce: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension Hypers.p.a.ce: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimensionvi, and his more recent 2005 book, Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos.vii Of the many video presentations available on the Shroud of Turin, the one I found the most useful was the 2007 DVD The Fabric of Time. The Fabric of Time.viii My wife, Monica, and my daughter, Alexis, graciously tolerated the countless hours I spent working alone, writing this book.
Finally, I want to thank my parish priest in New Jersey, Father Hernan Arias, in Morristown, New Jersey, who encouraged me to complete this book upon seeing the very first pages I had drafted.
i Frederick T. Zugibe, Frederick T. Zugibe, The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry (New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc., 2005). (New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc., 2005).
ii Raymond E. Brown, Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave (New York: Doubleday, Two Volumes, 1994). (New York: Doubleday, Two Volumes, 1994).
iii Ian Wilson, Ian Wilson, The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence That the World"s Most Sacred Relic Is Real The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence That the World"s Most Sacred Relic Is Real (New York: The Free Press, 1998). (New York: The Free Press, 1998).
iv Ian Wilson and Barrie Schwortz, Ian Wilson and Barrie Schwortz, The Turin Shroud: The Ill.u.s.trated Evidence The Turin Shroud: The Ill.u.s.trated Evidence (London: Michael O"Mara Books Limited, 2000). (London: Michael O"Mara Books Limited, 2000).
v Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? The Truth Behind the Centuries-Long Conspiracy of Silence Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? The Truth Behind the Centuries-Long Conspiracy of Silence (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994). (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994).
vi Michio Kaku, Michio Kaku, Hypers.p.a.ce: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension Hypers.p.a.ce: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
vii Michio Kaku, Michio Kaku, Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos (New York: Doubleday, 2005). (New York: Doubleday, 2005).
viii Executive Producers Vance Syphers, Paul Schubert, and Joe Call; and Senior Producer David W. Balsiger, Executive Producers Vance Syphers, Paul Schubert, and Joe Call; and Senior Producer David W. Balsiger, The Fabric of Time: Are the Secrets of the Universe Hidden in an Ancient Cloth? The Fabric of Time: Are the Secrets of the Universe Hidden in an Ancient Cloth? (Baker City, Oregon: Grizzly Adams Productions, 2007). (Baker City, Oregon: Grizzly Adams Productions, 2007).
Also by Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
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