Knights want papal apology 700 years after order's persecutioioion

[capt_buzzard]

The Vatican is giving 'serious' consideration' to apologising for the persecution that led to the suppression of the Knights of Templar.

The suppression began on Friday, October 13th, 1307, giving Friday the Thirteenth its supersititious legacy.

A Templar Order in Britain that claims to be descended from the original Knights of Termpar has asked that the Pope apologise.

The Templars, based in Hertford, north of London in the United Kingdom, are hoping for an apology by 2007, the 700 anniversary of the start of persecution, which culminated with torture and burning at the stake of Grand Master Jacques de Molay for hersy and the dissolution of the order by apostolic decree in 1312.

A letter from the Templars requests an apology 'for torture and murder of our leadership', instigated by Pope Clement V.

'We shall witness the 700th anniversary of the persecution of our order on the 13th October 2007', the letter says.

It would be just and fitting for the Vatican to acknoledge our grievance in advance of this day of mourning.

Apologies have been made already by the Roman Catholic Church for persecution of Galileo and for the Crusades.

The Templars hope that these precedents will make their suit more likely to succeed.

The Templars captured Jerusalem during the Crusades and were known as 'Keepers of the Holy Grail', said to be the cup used as at the Last Supper or as a receptacle used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Christ's blood as He bled on the Cross or both.

Interests in the Templars and the Holy Grail is at an unprecedented high after the success of books such as The De Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, and the earlier Holy Blood Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincolm, which claimed that Jesus survived the crusifixion and settled in France.

In Rome, a Vatican spokesperson, said the demand for an apology by the Templars would be given 'serious consideration'.

However, Vatican insiders said the Pole (84) was under pressure from conservative cardinals to 'stop saying sorry ' for errors of the past, after a series of papal apologies for the Crusades, the Inquisition, Christian anti-Semitism and heretics' such as Galieo.

Also for the child abuse done by its clerics around the world.

[Hawke]

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