"But the cross is invisible and there is no crown of thorns," Dunaway pointed out. "There aren't any nails being driven through his wrists or his feet. I don't understand how what I'm seeing could possibly be happening."

"That's why it's being considered a miracle," Ferrar said. "There were about one hundred people in the church at the time attending Ma.s.s and they all stood there spellbound, not knowing what was happening. One woman said it looked like Father Bartholomew was experiencing in his own body the pa.s.sion and death of Jesus Christ."

Just then the video showed Anne running forward and screaming, as she saw her brother suffering Christ's pa.s.sion and death. On the video, her blood-curdling scream seemed to reverberate throughout the cathedral.

"Who's that?" Dunaway asked.

"I'm told that is Anne Ca.s.sidy, the priest's half sister," Ferrar answered.

"How long did Father Bartholomew stay levitating above the altar?" Dunaway asked. "It's incredible-this happened in midtown Manhattan just a few minutes ago."

"It seemed like an eternity that Father Bartholomew levitated there above the main altar in St. Patrick's Cathedral," Ferrar answered. "But it was less than five minutes from start to stop. You're seeing it on the video just as it happened. I don't think we edited anything out."

"How did it end?" Dunaway asked.

"As soon as his sister screamed, Father Bartholomew collapsed to the ground and it was over," Ferrar said. "It's on the next part of the video. Let's watch-you can see it happening."

"Remarkable," Dunaway said as he watched the remaining video. Anne screamed and fainted; the police and ambulance personnel rushed into the cathedral.

"I never would have believed it, except for your video," Dunaway said. "It's the most remarkable news video I've ever seen in my life."

"I know," Ferrar said. "I stood there entranced, watching as it happened. We have the best video crew in the business. They just kept videotaping and going for those close-ups while I stood there in disbelief."

"Is that the end of the video?" Dunaway asked. The program returned to the studio to show Dunaway and Ferrar sitting side by side at a desk on the set.

"Yes, that's it," Ferrar said. "As you saw right at the end of the video, the New York police rushed over to surround our video crew. We were told to stop filming and we were promptly escorted outside the cathedral onto Fifth Avenue."

"Where is Father Bartholomew now?"

"I believe he was taken by the ambulance to Beth Israel Hospital in lower Manhattan," Ferrar answered. "The man who came to Father Bartholomew's aid late in the video is his physician, Dr. Stephen Castle."

"Stephen Castle, the psychiatrist?" Dunaway asked.

"Yes. The other priest who rushed to the altar was Father Marco Morelli, a Jesuit the pope sent from Rome to work with Father Bartholomew."

"So, you're saying the Vatican is involved with Father Bartholomew's case?"

"Yes," Ferrar said. "I'm told Pope John-Paul Peter I has taken a personal interest in Father Bartholomew and I believe I can confirm that Dr. Castle has been hired by the Vatican to take Father Bartholomew on as a patient."

"The Vatican must think Father Bartholomew is crazy. Why else would a psychiatrist be hired to treat him?"

"I don't know if the Vatican thinks Father Bartholomew is crazy, or if the Vatican is just being careful," Ferrar said. "Based on reports I filed over the past few days, Archbishop Duncan is also very deeply involved in this case. The Catholic Church is taking the case of Father Bartholomew very seriously."

"I can see that," Dunaway said, appearing suddenly distracted. "I'm being told by the control room that we also have a news clip of a press conference Archbishop Duncan and Dr. Castle held last week. I think we are going to play a clip from that now."

That evening the network televised an hourlong special report, The Miracle at the Cathedral, The Miracle at the Cathedral, hosted by Fernando Ferrar. hosted by Fernando Ferrar.

Nielsen reports the next day showed the broadcast was one of the most-watched Sunday evening news shows ever, with over ten million people tuning in.

Geraldo Rivera, move over! Ferrar thought as he left headquarters that evening around midnight. He was confident his career was made now. Ferrar thought as he left headquarters that evening around midnight. He was confident his career was made now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.

Monday morning Dr. Stephen Castle's office, New York City Day 19 When he entered the conference room, Dr. Castle found the group had a.s.sembled. Archbishop Duncan was not there, but Father Morelli and Father Middagh were, as well as Anne. She still looked tense, obviously concerned about her brother.

After Ferrar's TV reports, Father Bartholomew's story was the buzz on the Internet. Videos taken from TV coverage of the levitation in the cathedral had received more than fifteen million views online in less than twenty-four hours.

"Father Bartholomew is resting comfortably at Beth Israel Hospital," Castle told the group as he began the meeting. "If the experience with Father Bartholomew's previous wounds is any guide, I expect his wounds will heal quickly and that Father Bartholomew will recover rapidly, much more so than would normally be the case with such severe wounds."

Anne was relieved to hear this, but still, she was not convinced. "Can Father Morelli and I return with you to the hospital this afternoon to see my brother?"

"I'm not sure," Castle said. "At the end of this meeting, I expect to get a report on his condition and I'll make a decision then."

"Okay," Anne said compliantly.

Castle shifted gears unexpectedly. "At this meeting, I'm interested in learning more about the wounds we see on the man in the Shroud of Turin. As you all know, the world press is widely reporting that Father Bartholomew is now suffering the same wounds Jesus Christ suffered in his crucifixion, now including the crown of thorns and the stigmata in his feet. Pictures of the Shroud of Turin and Father Bartholomew are being juxtaposed on the Internet, on television, and in the print media internationally. Father Morelli explained to us last time that the Shroud of Turin provides a remarkably detailed view of the crucifixion of Jesus as described in the gospels of the New Testament, as well as the practice itself as described in contemporary Roman accounts. What I want to know in this meeting is this: Is there any basis on which we can discredit the comparisons the international news media are making between Father Bartholomew and Jesus? Given what we can learn about Roman crucifixion practices from studying the Shroud of Turin and what we know of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ from the New Testament, is there any basis for saying that what is happening to Father Bartholomew is not not what happened to Jesus Christ?" what happened to Jesus Christ?"

Father Middagh was prepared for this. "Let's start with the nail wounds on the feet."

"Okay," Castle said. "I'm listening."

Middagh projected an image from his computer onto the screen at the end of the conference room. "This is a view of the feet and calf area of the legs from the posterior image of the man in the Shroud. Remember, you are looking at a negative image in which left and right appear exactly as they would appear in the body of the crucified man in the Shroud. The image of the left foot shows only the heel area. The images of the feet are on the dorsal side of the body and were formed by blood contacting the Shroud, as we discussed before."

[image]

"In simple terms, what does all this mean?" Castle asked.

"It means the Roman executioners placed the sole of the right foot flat against the upright beam of the cross. Then they bent the left knee and twisted the body so the instep on the bottom of the left foot rested on top of the right foot. One nail appears to have been used to drive through both feet. The wound looks like it is in the metatarsal area of both feet, which would have been just forward of the small cuneiform bones just above the heel. The Roman executioners could have a different calculation with the feet than in nailing the wrists."

Studying the slide, Castle followed the explanation clearly.

"As we discussed before," Father Middagh went on, "the nails had to go through the small bones in the wrist, not the palms of the hands, because the hands nailed to the cross had to carry most of the weight of the body. The feet were different. The feet nailed to the cross did not have to carry body weight, but a crucified man would need to push down on the feet in order to lift himself up so he could breathe. In a way, the metatarsal region of the foot is more like the palm of the hand. If a man were crucified upside down, the feet would have to be nailed through the small cuneiform bones above the metatarsals. But the Romans needed to leave that region of the foot intact so the crucified man could push down with his legs to lift his body up. Basically, the nail in the feet just rode back up toward the heels as the crucified man lifted up to breathe."

"The pain had to be excruciating," Castle said.

"It was," Middagh said. "In fact, the word 'excruciating' derives from the Latin ex crucis, ex crucis, which denotes 'from being crucified.' The point of crucifixion was to make the death painful beyond description. Most people who were crucified died of suffocation. The weight of the body hanging down on the arms tended to fix the muscles needed for breathing in an inhalation state. To exhale, the crucified man had to pivot his weight down against the nail in his feet to allow the diaphragm to force the air out of his lungs. The nail in the feet rubbing on the bones in the feet would cause searing pain. In the process of breathing, the man's elbows would flex, causing the wrists to rotate around the iron nails, resulting in burning pain along the damaged median nerves leading to the thumbs. Eventually, the muscles tired and cramped, and the crucified man died of cardiopulmonary asphyxia." which denotes 'from being crucified.' The point of crucifixion was to make the death painful beyond description. Most people who were crucified died of suffocation. The weight of the body hanging down on the arms tended to fix the muscles needed for breathing in an inhalation state. To exhale, the crucified man had to pivot his weight down against the nail in his feet to allow the diaphragm to force the air out of his lungs. The nail in the feet rubbing on the bones in the feet would cause searing pain. In the process of breathing, the man's elbows would flex, causing the wrists to rotate around the iron nails, resulting in burning pain along the damaged median nerves leading to the thumbs. Eventually, the muscles tired and cramped, and the crucified man died of cardiopulmonary asphyxia."

Castle quickly grasped the anatomy of crucifixion. "What does the frontal view of the man in the Shroud show about the feet?"

"The feet in the frontal view are less distinct in the Shroud," Middagh said, "so you won't see much from the slide. From the ventral view, the bloodstain on the left foot is clear. The left foot was the foot placed on top, so we can see where the nail pierced the metatarsal area, about two-thirds of the way up the foot toward the heel from the toes. In the dorsal view of the man in the Shroud, we saw more clearly the sole of the right foot that rested flat against the cross. Hidden in the Shroud images of the feet are the parts of each foot that were inside after the left foot was crossed on top of the right. In other words, we don't have a very good image of the bottom of the left foot or the top of the right foot. But we can clearly see from the ventral view that the left knee is bent and the body rotated from the hip to accommodate the left leg resting partially on top of the right leg. Crucified this way, the lower part of the body would have been twisted somewhat away from the left, with the knees protruding most likely to the right. The crucified man's back would have rubbed against the wood of the upright beam of the cross each time the man lifted his body up or down in the process of breathing. In doing so, the scourge wounds on the back would have been reopened and rubbed raw."

In his mind, Castle quickly reviewed the many painted images of crucified Christ that he had seen in museums around the world. What Middagh was describing differed from the painted images in several important aspects. "So you don't think, then, that the feet of the man in the Shroud were nailed to any footrest that he could have used to support his weight?"

"The Shroud shows no evidence of a suppedaneum, suppedaneum, or footrest," Middagh answered. "You've got to remember the precise way Roman executioners fixed a man to the cross depended upon how long the Romans wanted the man to live. The arms and legs could be tied to the cross, which would prolong the time the man had to suffer. A footrest or even a little seat or or footrest," Middagh answered. "You've got to remember the precise way Roman executioners fixed a man to the cross depended upon how long the Romans wanted the man to live. The arms and legs could be tied to the cross, which would prolong the time the man had to suffer. A footrest or even a little seat or sedile sedile was fashioned as a block of wood and nailed to the upright crossbeam so the man could rest his b.u.t.tocks. Again, these niceties prolonged the death. A fully adult man crucified this way could last two or three days, possibly longer, providing he had not been scourged to within an inch of his life and that he had been tied to the cross instead of nailed. With a was fashioned as a block of wood and nailed to the upright crossbeam so the man could rest his b.u.t.tocks. Again, these niceties prolonged the death. A fully adult man crucified this way could last two or three days, possibly longer, providing he had not been scourged to within an inch of his life and that he had been tied to the cross instead of nailed. With a suppedaneum suppedaneum and a and a sedile, sedile, breathing was easier and the problem became dehydration and thirst, with the crucified man more likely to die from a combination of thirst and exposure, rather than asphyxia." breathing was easier and the problem became dehydration and thirst, with the crucified man more likely to die from a combination of thirst and exposure, rather than asphyxia."

"The problem in Christ's crucifixion was that the Roman executioners were up against the Sabbath," Morelli interjected. "To comply with Jewish law, Christ had to be dead and buried by sundown. In Jerusalem, two thousand years ago, much more so than today, everything in the Jewish community was expected to come to a total standstill once the sun went down on Friday."

"That's right," Middagh said. "From the evidence of the Shroud, there was no footrest or seat on the cross. The man's body was allowed to hang free, supported only by the nails in the wrists and the nail in the feet. The other variable was that the man in the Shroud shows evidence of a brutal scourging, back and front, from his shoulders to his heels. Crucifixion itself was meant to be a relatively bloodless process. The Roman executioners were expert in placing the nails so as to avoid piercing an artery. If they made a mistake and pierced an artery, the man could die in a matter of minutes. Making that mistake, a Roman centurion would have faced severe punishment for incompetence. But by scourging a man just short of the point where the scourging itself killed him, the time the man lived on the cross would have been shortened. This is what looks like was done to the man in the Shroud."

"If all else failed," Morelli added, "and the crucified man was living too long, the Romans typically took what amounted to a sledgehammer and broke the man's legs below the knees. With the legs broken, the only way the man could breathe was by raising and lowering his body by using his arms and pivoting against the nails in his wrist. As you can imagine, breathing like this would barely work at all and the pain of even trying to do so would have been unbearable. Once the legs were broken, death tended to come a few minutes later. Typically, those crucified died from a combination of pulmonary asphyxia and cardiac arrest."

Middagh added a point of clarification. "In the case of the man in the Shroud, the legs show no sign of being broken. Instead, the right side shows evidence of having been pierced by a Roman spear. This follows the accounts of the crucifixion in the New Testament and in Christian tradition that the legs of the two criminals crucified with Christ were broken, but Christ was spared this indignity. Thinking that Christ was already dead when sundown was approaching, a Roman centurion named Longinus took his spear and pierced through Christ's side to his heart. This would have left no doubt Christ was dead."

So far, what Middagh was describing confirmed what Castle had observed at Beth Israel of Father Bartholomew's wounds. The feet wounds looked like punctures from the top of the feet, as indicated by the skin forced down into the wound on top of each foot. The trauma evidence was that the left foot had been on top of the right, with a straight line evidencing the wound from the left foot through to exit Father Bartholomew's right foot. The skin on the sole of each foot was pushed out, as Castle would have expected to see from an exit wound caused by a nail or a spike.

"The ancient Romans had crucifixion down to a cruel science," Morelli added. "s.a.d.i.s.ts were particularly adapted to the work and Roman executioners who weren't good at what they did usually didn't last very long. Roman executioners were particularly good at taunting and tormenting the condemned as they were scourged, beaten, and crucified. With Christ's case, there was ample opportunity for humiliation, as evidenced by the crown of thorns."

"What does the Shroud tell us about the crown of thorns?" Castle asked Middagh.

"The blood flows on the forehead of the man in the Shroud appear to be from puncture marks that would be consistent with a crown of thorns. Particularly noticeable is the long blood flow above the left eye that seems to form the number 3. The puncture wounds and bloodstreams are also visible in a circle around the head in the dorsal image. Moreover, if you look closely, you will see matting on the hair on the top of the head, both in the frontal and posterior views of the man in the Shroud. This would suggest the crown of thorns was actually a cap of thorns that was beaten or hit into the scalp to cause fairly profuse bleeding. As you know, wounds to the scalp tend to bleed heavily."

Studying the Shroud, Castle could clearly see the same types of scalp wounds that Father Bartholomew suffered yesterday. His scalp wounds were from punctures and the punctures were on the top of his head, not just in a circle around his head at the level of his forehead.

"In the frontal view, you can clearly see the blood flows from the scalp wounds soaked down into the hair," Middagh went on. "Again, these blood flows occurred while the man in the Shroud was living and they were transferred directly onto the Shroud as bloodstains. The blood from the crown of thorns is distinct from the image of the man and was transferred onto the Shroud before the image appeared. Again, we know this because there is no body image formed under the blood flows on the head. The blood flows from the crown of thorns are more evidence the man was placed in the Shroud directly from the cross and shortly after he died."

"Looking at all this, one thing doesn't fit together," Anne said, obviously perplexed.

Castle expected that she was going to be upset at the suffering her brother was going through. Obviously, this was a concern Anne repeatedly expressed. But this morning something else was on her mind.

"If I am getting this right, first my brother experienced the stigmata on his wrists and then he suffered the scourge injuries. Is that correct?" she asked.

"That's right," Castle said.

"Now we see my brother experiencing the crown of thorns, then he levitates and gets the stigmata in his feet, right?"

"Yes," Castle said once again. "That's right. What's your point?"

"My point is that it's out of order," Anne said. "The way Christ suffered his pa.s.sion and death was that first he was scourged at the pillar, then the crown of thorns was placed on his head. He didn't suffer nail wounds until later, when he was crucified. If my brother is manifesting Christ's pa.s.sion and death, the order of his injuries is all wrong."

Castle could see that Anne had hit on an important point. "What do you think it means?" he asked her.

"I'm not entirely sure," Anne answered. "But I think it must have something to do with what Dr. Silver told us at Princeton."

"What do you mean?" Castle pressed again.

"I think it has to do with time," she explained. "My brother told me he felt his mission was to decipher the message of the Shroud for the world. Maybe he's showing us that time does not necessarily happen like we experience it. Maybe the events of Christ's pa.s.sion and death are all still happening somehow, as if those moments never ended. If that were so, my brother is able to go back and key into this moment or that moment of Christ's torture and death, but he doesn't necessarily have to do so in the sequence the events were seen to have followed some two thousand years ago."

"It's an interesting idea," Castle said.

"I mean, think about it," Anne said. "In a way, Christ's death preceded his scourging and crowning with thorns."

Castle struggled to follow this point. "I was following you up to now, but you just lost me."

Anne began to explain. "It's about how the tree defines the seed. Father Middagh has just explained that the way the ancient Romans crucified people depended on how the executioners wanted the crucified man to die. We just heard that the Romans scourged Christ to within an inch of his life because the Sabbath was approaching and Christ had to die quickly on the cross, in order to comply with the rules of the Jews that Christ's body had to be buried by sundown Friday. So, in that regard, the death of Christ was a reality that even two thousand years ago preceded his scourging at the pillar and determined exactly how he was crucified-whether or not he would have a seat to rest on and a footrest, for instance."

"There's another point here," Morelli said, picking up on the theme. "In a way, the Shroud of Turin is a book. Examining the wounds of the man in the Shroud gives us clues as to exactly how he was punished and killed. We read motivations into the crown of thorns, namely that Christ was mocked as the supposed King of the Jews, a concept the Roman centurions thought laughable. Otherwise there would have been no point in the mock crown designed to torment Christ."

"My brother continues to use the word codex codex to describe the Shroud," Anne said. "He said the Shroud was a codex, a secret message that he intended to decipher. My brother also said he never quit being a physicist and that this was the crowning experiment of his life. What my brother researched was time. Like Dr. Silver told us, my brother, when he was at the Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study, was working out advanced particle physics equations in order to prove we live in a universe that may involve ten or more dimensions, not just the four dimensions we think we live in. The point is that time is not as we experience it every day, not a logical progression from birth to death, from infancy to old age-not a straight line at all." to describe the Shroud," Anne said. "He said the Shroud was a codex, a secret message that he intended to decipher. My brother also said he never quit being a physicist and that this was the crowning experiment of his life. What my brother researched was time. Like Dr. Silver told us, my brother, when he was at the Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study, was working out advanced particle physics equations in order to prove we live in a universe that may involve ten or more dimensions, not just the four dimensions we think we live in. The point is that time is not as we experience it every day, not a logical progression from birth to death, from infancy to old age-not a straight line at all."

Just then, Castle's cell phone went off, interrupting the meeting.

Castle took the call. Archbishop Duncan was on the other end of the line.

"The pope would like to talk with you," Duncan said simply.

This did not entirely take Castle by surprise, not after the worldwide attention Fernando Ferrar's video broadcast had received. "Okay, when?"

"At one P.M. P.M. today," Duncan said. "If you are available, my office will arrange a three-way conference call with the Vatican, to include you and me with the pope." today," Duncan said. "If you are available, my office will arrange a three-way conference call with the Vatican, to include you and me with the pope."

"That will work," Castle said. "I want you to call me on my private landline in my office."

"Will do," Duncan agreed.

"Unfortunately, this meeting is over," Castle announced to the group in the conference room. "That was Archbishop Duncan and we've got an important conference call with the pope at one P.M. P.M. today." today."

"Should we wait to go to the hospital with you?" Anne asked.

"No," Castle said. "You go ahead. The hospital emailed me, and the report on your brother this morning is that he is out of the burn unit and resting quietly in intensive care."

"Do you see any reason for me to go to the hospital?" Middagh asked.

"No," Castle answered. "I think it's better not to confront Father Bartholomew with a crowd. Your presentation today has been very helpful. Thank you, again."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.

Monday afternoon Dr. Stephen Castle's office, New York City 1:00 P.M. P.M. ET, 7:00 ET, 7:00 P.M. P.M. in Italy in Italy Day 19 The conference call came through to Dr. Castle's office on time, as expected.

"Can Father Bartholomew travel?" the pope asked Castle immediately.

"I'm not sure," Castle answered. "I'm going to the hospital this afternoon to check on him. If his last injuries are any indication, he should recover rapidly. I can confirm it this evening, but I expect Father Bartholomew is going to be much stronger in a day or two. What do you have in mind?"

"I want to bring Father Bartholomew to the Vatican," the pope answered. "We need to manage this situation from Rome. Father Bartholomew's story is drawing tens of millions of believers and skeptics around the world and it's more than Archbishop Duncan can or should have to handle on his own."

"Thank you, Holy Father," Duncan said, relieved that he might soon transfer primary responsibility for Father Bartholomew to the Vatican. "I think I need to stay here in New York, if only to deal with the press. That's a responsibility that should fall to me."

"Agreed," the pope said. "You've got millions of people in New York and the United States who are now closely following Father Bartholomew."