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Dr. August D. Accetta, MD

My name is August David Accetta, M.D. I am founder of the Shroud Center of Southern California which was so commenced on May 19th, 1996. I have twice been a radio guest on EWTN's Living His Life Abundantly. Both times however, I was interviewed by Fr. Ed, who was covering for Ms. Bankovich as she was unavailable during the Easter programs. Approximately 7 years ago I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Scott Hahn at our Shroud Center her in Southern California. Other than these fews events, I have no other exposure to EWTN. I have written several scientific papers on the Shroud of Turin and have presented them as well as given over a hundred presentations on the Shroud nationally and internationally. I have been a fan of EWTN ever since my reversion to the Catholic faith in 1997. My story is as follows.

I was raised in San Pedro, California being born June 12, 1959. I am the youngest of eight children and as you might have guessed was raised Catholic. My experience with the church was actually quite positive. In fact I can even recall making several novenas. The last being during my college years whereby my special intention was to be accepted to medical school. It must have worked as I was accepted to Marquette Medical College in Milwaukee, WI. One of the most formidable programs in the country for clinical and academic functions. It was during my years in medical school when I lost my faith. I remember the events quite clearly. I for the first time in my life, was meeting various scholars and otherwise highly intelligent men and women. The thing we had in common was graduate level scientific knowledge as well as the pursuit of knowledge. What became clear quite quickly was what we did not have in common. Our faith. I was befriending and otherwise making acquaintance with highly intellectual people, many of whom had given much thought to their varous belief systems, and yet, our differences were vast. Differences ranging from Catholic to atheists and everything else in between. It was because of my great respect for the individuals with widely varying beliefs that I came to my conclusion at that time. Since we all couldn't be correct on the matter, I decided that no one was correct and that being agnostic was the most intellectually honest position to take. Admittedly I had never given any theological system any study at that point in my life. I dedicated myself entirely to the study of medicine and really didn't give theology much thought until I married in 1988. It was at that time I married into a very active protestant (fundamentalist) family. Though I occasioned the local Catholic church from time to time,I was regularly attending my wife's church and for the first time learning a little scripture along the way. Though I was faithful in attending, I remained agnostic for the time being. I recall Christmas 1991 or 1992 while performing a Christmas scene in her church I soberly thought to myself, what a terrible shame it is that this whole story is nothing more than that, a story. This brings us to the years 1992-1994, a time while I was building my private gynecology practice. I became interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Unfortunately it was at the pinnacle of their controversial period. I read books by Barbara Thering, Michael Baigent, Michael Wise, Robert Eisenman, and others who gave a convincing argument, to at that time the theologically ill informed, to the notion that the Bible was nothing more than a plagiarism of the Dead Sea Scrolls. A debate you no doubt have heard before. It was about that time period I learned of a physician-colleague in North Carolina who had been studying the Shroud of Turin for some 10 years to the date. He and I met for a few days and this commenced what would hopefully become a lifelong study and more importantly "journey to the truth". Over the next two years I became an avid reader and collector of Shroud materials. I soon became friends with the most significant scientists of contemporary Shroud studies. My background in medicine and chemistry facilitated my acceptability and entry to such a notable group. Before long I ahd collected so much material, I had no place to keep it all, thus I opened the Shroud Center of Southern California in May 1996. Since then I have published four scientific papers using nuclear radiation to explain the Shroud image. It is considered by many to be the greatest contribution towards the elucidation of the Shroud thus far. In addition, I have done segments in seven documentaries on the Shroud on the History Channel, National Geographic, the Learning Channel and others. More importantly, back to my journey home. The Shroud was the changing point in my life. Though this has been criticized by some in and out of the Church, it is as it is. The Shroud has affected numerous scientists similarly. In my case, it reopened the possibility of the claims of Christ. A possibility I as a scientist was not otherwise willing to consider. Once it did, I became zealous to read and study scripture and anything I could get my hands on at the time. It didn't take long before I was able to reconcile myself with historical Christianity. My previous argument that "since everyone of my scholarly friends could not be right-no-one-was" fell apart since none of them had ever really seriously (scientifically or systematically) studied the topic and clearly never studied the Shroud. My belief in Christ was logical, historical and now included strong evidence from the Shroud. It was at this point I decided to publically accept Christ at my wife's church. Ironically or providentially the very next day a priest friend of mine and supporter of the Shroud center, unknowing that the evening prior I had just "come forward" at my wife's church, asked me to reconsider the claims of the Catholic Church.

Over the next year, in addition to meeting Dr. Hahn, I read over one hundred books supporting and defending Catholic teaching, in addition to reading a dozen or so books by the leading anti-catholic authors. The protestant tenets fell apart so quickly it was actually quite embarrassing. I like so many others on this journey spent a good deal of time studying the Apostolic Fathers (Jurgens, JB Lightfoot and numerous others), and was thus enlightened to the claim of St. Newmann, that "to be steeped in Church History is to cease to be protestant". I went through all of the struggles that so many have described such as friends leaving them, wives miserable with the matter, and children put in the middle. Struggles that continue to this day.

A little over one year ago I along with a friend of mine (who happens to be our nation's leading Shroud physicist) began our masters studies at Catholic Distance University. Though my progress has gotten off to a slow start I am committed to completing at least my masters and hope to work in some capacity towards bringing others into this incredible "JOURNEY HOME".

Thank you for your interest in my journey,

August D. Accetta, M.D.