italy italy supplement supplement

ITALY
SUPPLEMENT
Gran Commendatore
Giovanni Pascale
E-mail : [email protected]
Gianmichele Galassi, Editor
E-mail : [email protected]
The History of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Italy
( Part One)
The York Rite was introduced in the Italian Masonic system under the jurisdiction of
the Grande Oriente d’Italia in 1962 on the initiative of a group of brothers from
Milan led by Giovanni Bricchi. They were driven by the need to give a new impetus to
the
he Masonic institution which, fifteen years after its re-foundation,
re foundation, found hard to give a
connotation that fell into step with other Communions of the world.
Under Mussolini’s dictatorship, for twenty years, Freemasonry had been abolished and
when it was possible to reconstruct it, the old model appeared deteriorated and
outdated. One of the most important contributions to its modernization was given by
those who, in search of a new and tested formula, discovered and proposed to the
young Italian Masons, eager
ager to change, the American system of the York Rite. They
brought it from Germany, where it was practiced both by many American soldiers still
present there and by German Masons who had learned to appreciate the deep moral
and esoteric content and its democratic
democratic organization. The power and success of the
new Rite was immediate. Of course, the Royal Arch Chapters , which are the basic
organization of the system, were born first and they were soon followed by the
Councils of Cryptic Masons. But all the countless
countless brothers who at first went to
Germany to receive initiation into the Chapter and Cryptic Degrees were initiated at
the same time also to the Chivalric Orders in Knights Templar Commanderies.
However, for the first two years the Italian Knights preferred
preferred not to establish any
Commandery in Italy , choosing to consolidate the Rite in its basic structures such as
the Chapters and the Councils. In 1964, in Detroit, a meeting took place between two
of the most distinguished members
m
of the Italian York Rite; on one side Giovanni
Bricchi and Mario Cantore and on the other Wilber Marion Brucker, who a few
months later was elected Grand Master of the Grand Encampment, an extraordinary
person who was Governor of Michigan and later, from 1955 to 1961, at the top of the
Pentagon holding the position of "Secretary of the Army” during the Eisenhower
government. He really appreciated the quality of the two Italians and realized what
potential the Italian Freemasonry could express for the expansion of the Knights
Templar in Europe. So he urged Bricchi and Cantore to be active in Milan, where they
lived, and to establish a Commandery gathering many Knights Templar who had been
initiated in Germany, especially in Heidelberg and Nuremberg, in those years. The two
Freemasons agreed. Therefore on August 26 1964 , during the forty-ninth Grand
Triennial Conclave , which was held in Philadelphia and in which Brucker was elected
to the High Charge, was also adopted a resolution to authorize the issuance of a "
special dispensation " that was to establish a Commandery in Milan.
Franco Valgattarri PGC
Per tradizione antichissima Natale è il periodo in cui diamo e riceviamo doni imitando
l’esempio dei re Magi. Essi, seguendo la stella cometa, arrivarono nella grotta di
Betlemme offrendo oro incenso e mirra a Cristo, egli stesso dono, che nel farsi uomo
si è voluto rivelare prima ai più saggi ed ai più umili della Terra.
Mi sembra doveroso oltre che di buon augurio iniziare l’anno 2014 con l’inserire nel
KT Magazine Italy Supplement la prima parte della Storia della nostra Gran Commenda,
scritta dal PGC Franco Valgattarri. L’intero documento è consultabile nel nuovo sito
web della Gran Commenda che dovrebbe essere disponibile in rete per l’inizio del
2014.
Anticipo a tutti gli auguri di Buon Natale e Felice anno Nuovo ed invio il mio triplice
fraterno e cavalleresco abbraccio.
Il Gran Commendatore
Cav. Giovanni Pascale