Today is a day of Zen and my birthday …..but that is not the apology I am talking about…….

Did you read or see the da Vinci Code?  How about the “Alabaster Jar”?  Anyway if not, they are both about the Knights Templar…..you know that band of dudes in the 11th century that went to the Middle east and came back the premier bunch of knights….they were the fair haired boys of the Pope and pretty much invented the banking system we have today….but that soon came to a halt….on Friday the 13th of October 1307. possibly the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition, the Pope and a French king began arresting and torturing and eventually executing the Knights Templar……to this day there has been an opinion that these charges of idolatry, heresy and devil worship were trumped up charges to gain the extreme wealth that the Templars controlled….the order was pretty much disbanded as many escaped to parts unknown……

But in the 19th century the order was reborn, but this time as a charitable organization….and recently the order has sent a letter to Benedict XVI asking that the order be reinstated in good graces of the church and that they want an apology for the misdeeds inflicted on the Templars…..

From an article in UK’s Telegraph……..

The Italian chapter of the order has written to Pope Benedict XVI asking him to issue a pardon for de Molay and to acknowledge that he was a victim of false accusations.

“There was an enormous degree of complicity because Clement V, who was Pope at the time, was under huge pressure from King Philip,” Walter Grandis, 64, the current head or Grand Prior of the Knights Templar in Italy, told The Daily Telegraph.

“This was an appalling crime and a miscarriage of justice that the Church allowed to happen.

“We’re asking for de Molay to be pardoned so that we can finally turn a page in history and work towards reconciliation,” said Mr Grandis, who recently wrote a book on the order, called The Templars: The Real Secret.

A document found in the Vatican Secret Archives a decade ago revealed that Clement V absolved some Templars of heresy, but the Church has never apologised for the order’s persecution.

The request for a pardon and apology was submitted to Dr Guzman Carriquiry Lecour, the under-secretary for the Pontifical Council for the Laity, a few weeks ago but will be discussed by modern-day Templars at a special conference in Turin on Friday and Saturday.

A Vatican spokesman said the request was being considered.

Whatcha think?  Should the Pope apologize?  I say YES!  There is much the Catholic Church needs to apologize for and this would be a great place to start.