Shroud of Turin and the Scientific Method: Joe Marino

Please join me for a fascinating interview with Shroud of Turin researcher Joe Marino as we examine the success of the scientific methods used to analyze the most studied archaeological object in history — and the failures of scientists who betrayed their principles.

About Joe Marino:

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.homestead.com/newvistas

Joseph Marino has a B.A. in Theological Studies from St. Louis University and is a long-time sindonologist (one who studies the Shroud of Turin). He has researched, written and lectured extensively on the Shroud since 1977. He is retired from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where he worked in the library system.

In 1977, he saw a book on the Shroud of Turin, which he had never heard of before, even though he was raised as a Catholic. He read the book in one sitting and became fascinated by the subject and proceeded to collect any material on it that he could find. In January 1980 he started living at the Benedictine monastery St. Louis Priory, which later became known as the St. Louis Abbey. In 1986, he attended his first Shroud conference and met for the first time, many of the top scientists and researchers involved. In the early 1990s he felt drawn to the priesthood and was subsequently ordained in 1994.

In 1997 Marino received a call from M. Sue Benford who informed him of her spiritual insights about the Shroud. After many discussions via phone and emails about the Shroud and other spiritual matters, he began to experience God in a whole new way. He felt powerfully drawn to leave the monastery to pursue Shroud research and other spiritual paths with Benford.

Marino believes that if the Shroud can be shown to be the burial cloth of Jesus, it would be an interesting archaeological object; however, he believes that it's more important for the spiritual message it can bring. As a former Benedictine monk, and Catholic priest, Joseph believes that organized religion has often depicted Jesus as an unreachable deity, whose standards we can never reach. With his work he hopes to show that the Shroud represents a more human Jesus, who is someone we can not only approach, but, as indicated in the Gospel of John, a person we can even surpass in doing great things.

”It is my hope and desire that our work can get this message across, and, it is my belief that this is the destiny to which I've been called, which is why I have been given the passion I possess for the Shroud.”