Owner of Turin Shroud has no objection to carbon test

By Peter Jennings
MGR GIULIO Ricci, director of the Rom Centre for the study of the Turin Shroud said this week that he believed "very strongly" in the authenticity of the Shroud.
Mgr Ricci, who has studied the shroud for over 30 years, told me that he was "surprised' by the claim of Dr Walter McCrone that the shroud was "a mediaeval fake".
He was pleased that Dr McCrone's allegation had been brought out into the open so it could be "refuted".
'Mgr Ricci thought both Cardinal Bailestrero of Turin, custodian of the Shroud, and ex-King Umberto II of Savoy, its present owner, who now lives in exile in Portugal, had no objection to a carbon 14 date test provided the shroud was not damaged in any way.
But he emphasised that he did not think they were yet convinced that scientists could do the test without damaging part of the cloth.
Surrounded by photographs of the shroud in the centre which he founded five years ago, Mgr Ricci said he had "no idea" when the Italian scientists would release the results of tests they did on the shroud in Turin during October 1978.
Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin, where the shroud has been kept since September 1578, was not avilable to comment about the possibility of a carbon 14 date test. He is attending the Synod of Bishops.