The whole affair seems rather laughable.
However, it is with seriousness and gravity that the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ has filed a complaint against the Vatican before the Spanish courts.
The matter in question is the papal bull signed in 1312 by Pope Clement V before the dissolution of the Order of Templars, which they say had never had any legal authority.
For the plaintiffs, their distant forebears had been condemned as the result of a “defamatory” trial “which did not provide the shadow of a proof,” leading to the arrest of “15,300 knights, of which 650 were killed—among them the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, burned alive on March 18, 1314.”
The Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ therefore demands of the Spanish justice system not only a reinstatement of the Templars of the Middle Ages but also financial compensation for the seizure of their goods, which were handed over “in large part” to the Order of Malta.
Currently gritting their teeth while in the process of applying a constitutional reform of their own Order imposed by Rome, the Knights of Malta probably have other things to do than consider the plight of their Spanish confreres.
It’s difficult to be upset with the plaintiffs: after all, they are only trying their luck and have nothing to lose in this quest for repentance into which many members of the Church hierarchy have ventured for the past several decades.
This is not, for that matter, the first time that the Templars have asked the Vatican for their reinstatement: in 2005, 2006, and 2007, under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the same Spanish association had already filed a complaint against the Holy See, to no avail.
Perhaps they think they will have more of a chance at being heard by the Argentinian Pontiff who made “listening and understanding” the key words of his synodal project.
But that’s not all, for the Spanish association has other demands: to have the power to canonically erect places of worship, to recover the Vatican archives concerning the Templars, and to have the martyrdom of their executed brothers at the time of the dissolution of the Order recognized.
Finally, our Templars of the 21st century would be given a mission from the Holy See: that of an army corps able to intervene in religious conflicts and serve as mediator between opposed parties.