The Shroud Codex - Jerome R. Corsi [74]
“As I mentioned to you on the telephone, this is Anne Cassidy, Father Bartholomew’s half sister,” Castle said, introducing Anne.
Silver stood up and shook Anne’s hand cordially. “I didn’t know Paul had a sister,” Silver said.
“It’s a complicated story,” Anne said. “But we have different fathers and my mother divorced my father before Paul was born. Paul never knew he had a half sister and we have just now been reunited.”
“That’s good,” Silver said, obviously not interested in probing the details.
“As I understand it, Paul Bartholomew was one of your undergraduate students,” Castle said, getting to the main purpose of the conversation. “Paul evidently was one of your protégés. You encouraged him to become a physics graduate student and you supported his appointment to the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Silver said. “Bartholomew was one of the most promising physicists ever to work at Princeton or at the Institute for Advanced Study and we’ve had more than our share of Nobel Prize winners over the decades. In my estimation, Paul was well along his way to adding his name to that list, before he decided to quit.”
“Why did he quit?” Castle asked.
“His mother died. She was sick for quite a while, as I remember. She had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.”
“She was sick for some time,” Castle said.
“That’s how I remember it. At any rate, when she died, Bartholomew wasn’t the same. He lost his interest in physics. I couldn’t figure it out at the time, but I remember him telling me he had despaired of the possibility of finding God in an equation.”
“Did you ever meet Paul’s mother?” Anne asked, anxious to see if he could supply her with any memories of their mother.
“I met her a few times,” Silver recalled. “But, you’ve got to understand, I was Paul’s academic advisor and then I was chairman of the Physics Department when he was a graduate student. I try not to intervene too heavily in the personal lives of my students. I’m a physicist, not a psychologist, and I built my career on knowing my limitations.”
“As I understand it, you tried to discourage Paul from leaving his career as a physicist. Is that right?” Castle asked.
“Yes, I did. I could see he was emotionally crushed when his mother died. Paul had only two things in his life: his love of physics and his love of his mother. He was devoted to both. I had given up thinking Paul would ever get married. As I recall he had a few girlfriends, but relationships were hard for Paul. Women were too emotionally demanding and Paul was afraid of marriage. I’m sure, Ms. Cassidy, you will agree with me that a man who can’t make a commitment to a woman is not a very good prospect for marriage.”
“Maybe that’s why I’ve never been married,” Anne said, with a knowing smile. “Men like my brother marry their jobs and his attachment to our mother would not be very promising to a woman looking to be the center of his life as his wife.”
“It was his commitment to theoretical research that consumed Paul,” Silver said, wanting to be precise. “That’s why I recommended him to the institute. The institute is a separate organization, not part of Princeton University. We are very close and the faculty here at the Physics Department typically works closely with the physicists at the institute. But the faculty at the institute have no students and they are not required to teach any classes. The faculty are not even required to write any books or articles, unless they want to. You might say that getting an appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study is one of the best academic jobs in America. You get paid handsomely and you are free to pursue whatever studies you want. Paul’s devotion to theoretical research in physics fit right in.”
“What was Paul working on when his mother died?” Castle asked.
“Do either of you have any background in physics?” Silver asked.
“None whatsoever,” Anne volunteered.
“I took undergraduate