Excerpt from the annual magazine Templars Today – 2020 edition
In recent times, we have endured difficult years, but certainly 2020 has surpassed them all: the global Covid pandemic, severe political and economic challenges, and the situation of our beloved Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church, which seems to have lost its solidity, leaving itself vulnerable to the persistent and biased attacks of all the materialistic powers of the world, long committed to diminishing its salvific role to the point of making it disappear.
But NON PRAEVALEBUNT—they will not prevail—even though every opportunity is seized to strike at men of the Church, the faithful, places of worship, and all who have been, are, and will be aligned with it, such as the Catholic Templars of Italy.
In this Annus Horribilis, we Templars have managed to maintain our free and selfless service, helping to safeguard over 150 Churches, Sanctuaries, and Cathedrals across Italy, France, England, Poland, and the United States of America.
Not only have we supported Priests, Religious Brothers and Sisters, and Bishops in their daily pastoral work, but we have also succeeded in holding our annual Spiritual Retreats, complying with state regulations for virus containment, while bearing witness to courage in a moment when two terrible rulers dominate the Earth: King Hatred and Queen Fear.
Hundreds of Templar Knights and Dames participated in two Spiritual Retreats in Assisi, at the ancient and evocative Abbey of Valvisciolo with the Cistercian Monks, and at the important National Retreat in Rome. For the first time, the Silent Walk with the Sacred Relics took place along the ancient Via dei Fori Imperiali, starting from the Colosseum, where the first Christian Martyrs shed their precious blood, and ending at the summit of the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, with the Holy Mass officiated by our Cardinal Patron, His Eminence Don Francesco Monterisi.
All of this culminated in the October Retreat in the splendid city of Trani, held between the famous Templar Church of All Saints, which we had secured and reopened for worship, and the towering Cathedral overlooking the sea, with the appointment of the Cathedral Chapter President Mons. Giovanni Masciullo as Minister Templi. Long-awaited was the exclusive visit to the mysterious Castel del Monte, built by our ancient Templar Brothers and later seized by force by the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II.
Many battles for the True Faith still await us, but with the protection of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, to whom we are consecrated, I am certain we will keep the Temple’s banner—the glorious Beauceant—high in these stormy, materialistic years.
Spirit, Faith, and Witness are and will always be stronger than matter and the World.
Always Forward!
VIVE DIEU SAINT AMOUR!
Fra’ Mauro Giorgio Ferretti
di Santo Stefano e Val Reno
Magister Templi
