Behold the signs of the times.

How wondrous are the mysterious ways of God!

Maybe there was a reason for the flawed carbon dating that calls to mind something I have already written: The issue is not provenance but providence. Could it be that the erroneous carbon dating was a way of pushing the ball down the court to give science a time to catch-up with the “sign” of the Shroud and insure the controversy which would allow it to be again a center of attention?

And who should emerge as the preeminent spokesman for the Shroud but Barrie Schwortz, a man who in 1978 was a gangly young photographer and in the interim has now aged, and created the number one Shroud source on the web:  shroud.com And when it comes to providence, how is it that Barrie was first to register that name?

I kidded Barrie that his April sojourn  was like a missionary trek of St. Paul. But the astounding coverage given his interview with the Catholic New Service and other media outlets on his missionary journey has raised interest in the Shroud. Certainly his perspective, as one raised in a Jewish family who was reluctant to get involved, provides power to his message.

And now America, the Jesuit Magazine that Fr. Peter Rinaldi avoided in 1934 because of the sway of Shroud critic Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J.,  reports on his views.  http://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/mystery-shroud

Behold the signs of the time! He is coming, but He  is coming not on a cloud but through science and the Internet.

Alleluia!