He would have needed some luck to survive the crash, even if he had planned it. Castle doubted anyone would go so far, but he did not discount the other possibility: that the hoax came to Father Bartholomew’s imagination after he woke up in the hospital having survived the car crash. Castle recalled a Brooklyn crime ring that set up fake car accidents in which people were “killed” or “hurt” so they could file bogus insurance claims for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What was clear to Castle was that if Gabrielli could produce acredible fake Shroud, then he could say to the Church that there was no way Father Bartholomew was mystically manifesting the real crucified Jesus as part of a mission given him by God. Having a credible fake Shroud would certainly support Castle’s hypothesis that Father Bartholomew had an overactive subconscious that was working below the surface to manifest what Father Bartholomew unconsciously thought the historical Jesus looked like, based on Father Bartholomew’s admitted study of the Shroud.
Castle proposed that he and Gabrielli work together. “I can easily get a book contract for this,” Castle explained, “and we could coauthor the work. I will supply the psychiatric analysis and you provide the scientific analysis. Father Bartholomew will be our case study. The book will proceed from the findings of my previous book,
The God Illusion,
in that I want to argue people invent God to satisfy their own inadequacies and make up for their own perceived fears and deficiencies. You will just be advancing your work that there are scientific explanations that explain paranormal religious phenomena, just as you did with stigmata.”
“Makes sense to me,” Gabrielli said. “I would love to collaborate with you on such a project.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Same day
Dr. Stephen Castle’s office, New York City
Midnight in New York City, 6:00 A.M. next day in Rome
The pope called Dr. Castle at midnight, just as Archbishop Duncan had arranged after Castle’s first interview with Father Bartholomew.
“Dr. Castle, I want to thank you for taking this case,” the pope began.
“You’re welcome, your Holiness,” Castle answered respectfully. “I just want to make sure we understand one another before I get too deeply into it. I helped you and Archbishop Duncan once before, but that doesn’t mean I’m a great friend of the Catholic Church. I’m still an atheist and I still think religion is basically a neurosis.”
“I know that’s what you believe,” the pope answered. “I didn’t expect you had changed your views.”
“And now I want to make sure you are not hiring me to prove the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of the historical Jesus. If that’s your goal, I’m the wrong man for the job.”
“Why don’t you believe the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus, then?”
“For starters, the face of the man in the Shroud is all wrong for me. My first impression when I saw the photographs of the Shroud was that the face looks like the face a medieval European artist would have painted for Jesus. The historical Jesus was Semitic. The man in the Shroud looks Italian. It makes sense. If you wanted to sell a forgery, you would probably make Jesus look like the people you were trying to get to buy your handiwork.”
“I’m not surprised that’s your conclusion.”
“You should also know that I spent most of the afternoon today on the telephone with Professor Marco Gabrielli at the University of Bologna.”
The pope knew Gabrielli well. “Then you probably heard a lot about why he thinks Padre Pio was a fraud.”
“I did,” Castle said. “We spent a lot of time talking about how carbolic acid could have been used to cause those wounds to appear on Padre Pio’s palms.”
“This case is not about Padre Pio,” the pope said without hesitation. “Pope John Paul II declared Padre Pio a saint in 2002 and that declaration is now a dogma of faith that is affirmed by the
What was clear to Castle was that if Gabrielli could produce acredible fake Shroud, then he could say to the Church that there was no way Father Bartholomew was mystically manifesting the real crucified Jesus as part of a mission given him by God. Having a credible fake Shroud would certainly support Castle’s hypothesis that Father Bartholomew had an overactive subconscious that was working below the surface to manifest what Father Bartholomew unconsciously thought the historical Jesus looked like, based on Father Bartholomew’s admitted study of the Shroud.
Castle proposed that he and Gabrielli work together. “I can easily get a book contract for this,” Castle explained, “and we could coauthor the work. I will supply the psychiatric analysis and you provide the scientific analysis. Father Bartholomew will be our case study. The book will proceed from the findings of my previous book,
The God Illusion,
in that I want to argue people invent God to satisfy their own inadequacies and make up for their own perceived fears and deficiencies. You will just be advancing your work that there are scientific explanations that explain paranormal religious phenomena, just as you did with stigmata.”
“Makes sense to me,” Gabrielli said. “I would love to collaborate with you on such a project.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Same day
Dr. Stephen Castle’s office, New York City
Midnight in New York City, 6:00 A.M. next day in Rome
The pope called Dr. Castle at midnight, just as Archbishop Duncan had arranged after Castle’s first interview with Father Bartholomew.
“Dr. Castle, I want to thank you for taking this case,” the pope began.
“You’re welcome, your Holiness,” Castle answered respectfully. “I just want to make sure we understand one another before I get too deeply into it. I helped you and Archbishop Duncan once before, but that doesn’t mean I’m a great friend of the Catholic Church. I’m still an atheist and I still think religion is basically a neurosis.”
“I know that’s what you believe,” the pope answered. “I didn’t expect you had changed your views.”
“And now I want to make sure you are not hiring me to prove the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of the historical Jesus. If that’s your goal, I’m the wrong man for the job.”
“Why don’t you believe the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus, then?”
“For starters, the face of the man in the Shroud is all wrong for me. My first impression when I saw the photographs of the Shroud was that the face looks like the face a medieval European artist would have painted for Jesus. The historical Jesus was Semitic. The man in the Shroud looks Italian. It makes sense. If you wanted to sell a forgery, you would probably make Jesus look like the people you were trying to get to buy your handiwork.”
“I’m not surprised that’s your conclusion.”
“You should also know that I spent most of the afternoon today on the telephone with Professor Marco Gabrielli at the University of Bologna.”
The pope knew Gabrielli well. “Then you probably heard a lot about why he thinks Padre Pio was a fraud.”
“I did,” Castle said. “We spent a lot of time talking about how carbolic acid could have been used to cause those wounds to appear on Padre Pio’s palms.”
“This case is not about Padre Pio,” the pope said without hesitation. “Pope John Paul II declared Padre Pio a saint in 2002 and that declaration is now a dogma of faith that is affirmed by the
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