Senior Clergy of the Independent Old Catholic Church Appeal to Pope John Paul II to Issue Papal Pardon

VATICAN documents have come to light in the Secret Archives showing that the unprecedented global massacre of the Knights Templar in the Middle Ages for alleged "heresy, idolatry and sexual perversion continued even though the Pope had exonerated them in a secret trial.

The formal appeal sent by His Eminence, Archbishop Gary Beaver and presented to Pope John Paul, who recently asked the Muslim world for forgiveness for the Crusades, is now asked to apologise for the persecution of the main Crusading orders as well. The Knights Templar Order of today, The Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (OSMTH) that lost papal recognition by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne in France in 1312, have never ceased to exist and continue their Christian charitable works.

Archbishop Gary Beaver, who holds the most senior position within the OSMTH Knights Templar Order as the Magistral Grand Prior of the Holy Lands was overjoyed with the official news that the original document had at last been found. His Eminence stated " The OSMTH has never ceased in its good works, and never shall' and further stated " Our journey without Papal recognition has not effected the great humanitarian projects over the centuries, although it has permitted many unrecognised and irregular groups to make false claims as to their legitimacy and rights to use the name Knights Templar by so many self styled organisations.'

L'Avvenire, of the Catholic Daily, said that the record of the Pope's investigation was thought to have been lost when Napoleon looted the Vatican during his invasion of Italy in the 18th century, and that its rediscovery was an exceptional event.

The Templar Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burnt at the stake on the orders of Philip IV of France (known as Philip the Fair), who coveted the Templar order's land and treasure and began a campaign of dawn arrests and torture in 1307. At least 2,000 Knights were killed in an attempt to obliterate the order altogether. It was revived in the 18th century as part of the masonic movement, which is said to have inherited some of the Templars' secret rituals.

Barbara Frale, a researcher at the Vatican School of Paleontology, said that the consensus among historians was that Clement V, who was himself French and a former Archbishop of Bordeaux, had been pliant and weak, and had colluded in Philip the Fair's scheme to wipe out the Templars and seize their fortune. But documents found in the Vatican archives, including a long-lost parchment, proved that the Pope had in fact manoeuvred "with skill and determination' to ensure that his own emissaries questioned de Molay and other leading Templars in the dungeons of Chinon castle in the Loire in 1308, in what amounted to a papal trial.

Signora Frale, who is writing a book based on the Chinon parchment, told the Italian monthly Hera, a journal of historical mysteries, that the result was the complete exoneration of the Knights Templar.

Noting that de Molay and the Knights had asked his pardon, the Pope wrote: "We hereby decree that they are absolved by the church and may again receive Christian sacraments.' Signor Forgione said that the Pope had failed to make this absolution public because the scandal of the Templars had aroused extreme passions and he feared a church schism. Philip IV had de Molay and other Templar leaders put to death before the Pope's verdict could be published, and it was subsequently lost.

Those interested in finding out more about the OSMTH Magistral Grand Priory of the Holy Lands should visit www.ordotempli.org

The Most Reverend Gary Beaver
Archbishop - Primatial See
Interdenominational Church of the Holy Lands
www.interdenominational.net