With immediate effect, the Apostolic Episcopal Church is to be represented in Italy solely by its Honorary Canon, Bro. Carlo Livieri Morini di Morin. The Apostolic Episcopal Church has no other clergy or lay representatives in Italy at this time.
Letter of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi affirms its commitment to peace and its rejection of armed conflict. It notes the recent letter of Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and reproduces its text below, commending it to all who adhere to the Abbey-Principality and its dependent institutions.
Letter of the Patriarch
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
May the Lord give you peace!
We are going through one of the most difficult and painful periods in our recent times and history. For over two weeks now, we have been inundated with images of horrors, which have reawakened ancient traumas, opened new wounds, and made pain, frustration, and anger explode within all of us. Much seems to speak of death and endless hatred. So many “whys” overlap in our minds, adding to our sense of bewilderment.
The whole world views this Holy Land of ours as a place that is a constant cause of wars and divisions. That is precisely why it was good that a few days ago, the whole world joined us with a day of prayer and fasting for peace. It was a beautiful view of the Holy Land and an important moment of unity with our Church. And that view is still there. Next Oct. 27, the pope has called for a second day of prayer and fasting, so that our intercession may continue. It will be a day that we will celebrate with conviction. It is perhaps the main thing we Christians can do at this time: pray, do penance, intercede. For this, we thank the Holy Father from the bottom of our hearts.
In all this uproar where the deafening noise of the bombs is mixed with the many voices of sorrow and the many conflicting feelings, I feel the need to share with you a word that has its origin in the Gospel of Jesus. That is the starting point which we set out from, and return to, time and time again: a word from the Gospel to help us live this tragic moment by uniting our feelings with those of Jesus.
Looking to Jesus, of course, does not mean feeling exempt from the duty to speak, to denounce, to call out, as well as to console and encourage. As we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel, it is necessary to render “to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mt 22:21). Looking to God, we therefore want, first of all, to render to Caesar what is his.
My conscience and moral duty require me to state clearly that what happened on Oct. 7 in southern Israel is in no way permissible and we cannot but condemn it. There is no reason for such an atrocity. Yes, we have a duty to state this and to denounce it. The use of violence is not compatible with the Gospel, and it does not lead to peace. The life of every human person has equal dignity before God, who created us all in his image.
The same conscience, however, with a great burden on my heart, leads me to state with equal clarity today that this new cycle of violence has brought to Gaza over 5,000 deaths, including many women and children, tens of thousands of wounded, neighborhoods razed to the ground, lack of medicine, lack of water and of basic necessities for over 2 million people. These are tragedies that cannot be understood and which we have a duty to denounce and condemn unreservedly. The continuous heavy bombardment that has been pounding Gaza for days will only cause more death and destruction and will only increase hatred and resentment. It will not solve any problem but rather create new ones. It is time to stop this war, this senseless violence.
It is only by ending decades of occupation and its tragic consequences, as well as giving a clear and secure national perspective to the Palestinian people that a serious peace process can begin. Unless this problem is solved at its root, there will never be the stability we all hope for. The tragedy of these days must lead us all, religious, political, civil society, international community, to a more serious commitment in this regard than what has been done so far. This is the only way to avoid other tragedies like the one we are experiencing now. We owe it to the many victims of these days and to those of years past. We do not have the right to leave this task to others.
Yet, I cannot live this extremely painful time without looking upward, without looking to Christ, without the faith that enlightens my view and yours on what we are experiencing, without turning our thoughts to God. We need a Word to accompany us, to comfort and encourage us. We need it like the air we breathe.
“I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have tribulations, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33).
We find ourselves on the eve of Jesus’ passion. He addresses these words to his disciples, who will shortly be tossed about, as if in a storm, before his death. They will panic, scatter, and flee, like sheep without a shepherd.
Yet, this last word of Jesus is an encouragement. He does not say that he shall win, but that he has already won. Even in the turmoil to come, the disciples will be able to have peace. This is not a matter of theoretical irenic peace, nor of resignation to the fact that the world is evil, and we can do nothing to change it. Instead it is about having the assurance that precisely within all this evil, Jesus has already won. Despite the evil ravaging the world, Jesus has achieved a victory and established a new reality, a new order, which after the resurrection will be assumed by the disciples who were reborn in the Spirit.
It was on the cross that Jesus won: not with weapons, not with political power, not by great means, nor by imposing himself. The peace he speaks of has nothing to do with victory over others. He won the world by loving it. It is true that a new reality and a new order begin on the cross. The order and the reality of the one who gives his life out of love. With the Resurrection and the gift of the Spirit, that reality and that order belong to his disciples. To us. God’s answer to the question of why the righteous suffer is not an explanation but a Presence. It is Christ on the cross.
It is on this that we stake our faith today. Jesus in that verse rightly speaks of courage. Such peace, such love, require great courage.
To have the courage of love and peace here, today, means not allowing hatred, revenge, anger, and pain to occupy all the space of our hearts, of our speech, of our thinking. It means making a personal commitment to justice, being able to affirm and denounce the painful truth of injustice and evil that surrounds us, without letting it pollute our relationships. It means being committed, being convinced that it is still worthwhile to do all we can for peace, justice, equality, and reconciliation. Our speech must not be about death and closed doors. On the contrary, our words must be creative, life-giving; they must give perspective and open horizons.
It takes courage to be able to demand justice without spreading hatred. It takes courage to ask for mercy, to reject oppression, to promote equality without demanding uniformity, while remaining free. It takes courage today, even in our diocese and our communities, to maintain unity, to feel united to one another, even in the diversity of our opinions, sensitivities, and visions.
I want, and we want, to be part of this new order inaugurated by Christ. We want to ask God for that courage. We want to be victorious over the world, taking upon ourselves that same cross, which is also ours, made of pain and love, of truth and fear, of injustice and gift, of cries and forgiveness.
I pray for us all, and in particular for the small community of Gaza, which is suffering most of all. In particular, our thoughts go out to the 18 brothers and sisters who perished recently and to their families whom we know personally. Their pain is great, and yet with every passing day, I realize that they are at peace. They are scared, shaken, upset, but with peace in their hearts. We are all with them, in prayer and concrete solidarity, thanking them for their beautiful witness.
Finally, let us pray for all innocent victims. The suffering of the innocent before God has a precious and redemptive value because it is united with the redemptive suffering of Christ. May their suffering bring peace ever closer!
We are approaching the solemnity of the Queen of Palestine, the patroness of our diocese. The shrine was erected during another time of war, and was chosen as a special place to pray for peace. In these days we will once again reconsecrate our Church and our land to the Queen of Palestine! I ask all churches around the world to join the Holy Father and to join us in prayer, and in the search for justice and peace.
We will not be able to gather all together this year, because the situation does not allow it. But I am sure that the whole diocese will be united on that day in prayer and in solidarity for peace, not worldly peace, but the peace which Christ gives us.
With sincere prayers for all,
+Pierbattista Card. Pizzaballa
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
Source: https://www.lpj.org/cached_uploads/download/2023/10/24/1-1318-2023-en-1-1698133294.pdf
Social and religious activities in the Apostolic Episcopal Church in Brazil
A party for Children’s Day
Disclaimer: Mauro Contili
The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi and the Apostolic Episcopal Church have been informed that one Mauro Contili has claimed falsely that he has been elected bishop by the Prince-Abbot of San Luigi (The Most Revd. Edmond John Kersey de Polanie-Patrikios/Mar Joannes Edmundus) in his capacity as Primate of the Apostolic Episcopal Church. The false claim has been published on his website here and reads (in translation) “he was ordained Anglican Canon by the Primate Archbishop Mar Joannes Edmundus and always as Bishop-elect Vicar General for Italy.”
Mauro Contili has never met Archbishop Kersey and Archbishop Kersey has never ordained or consecrated him, nor has he elected him bishop. It is not possible to ordain a man to the offices of canon or provincial vicar-general, which are purely appointive offices.
Mauro Contili had previously been a priest in the Chiesa Cristiana Anglo Cattolica under Mgr. Damiano di Lernia, who had ordained him deacon and priest on 20 June 2016. In 2017, having previously left that church, and in consequence of a personal introduction by the then-representative of the Apostolic Episcopal Church in Italy, Mauro Contili was incardinated in his existing priestly orders into the Apostolic Episcopal Church and appointed Canon and Vicar-General of the Province of Italy, with faculties being issued to him on 17 June 2017. At no time was he elected bishop.
However, subsequent events made it quickly apparent that Contili did not in fact share in the aims and intended mission of the Apostolic Episcopal Church. As a result he was granted a full release from the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Faculties issued to him were rescinded on 17 July 2017. At this time Archbishop Kersey also resigned as Spiritual Protector of the Università Anglo Cattolica San Paolo under Contili’s direction, and removed that university from affiliation with the Apostolic Episcopal Church. Since that time there has been no contact between Contili and our organization. The appointments in the Apostolic Episcopal Church to which he refers in his publications were held by him for less than one month and were removed for cause.
Members of the Royal Byelorussian Orders: Prince August von Hohenstaufen-Lanza
Prince August von Hohenstaufen-Lanza (1928-2007) was a senior member of the Royal Byelorussian Orders, being a Knight Nobilis Excubitor of the Byzantine Order of Leo the Armenian, a Knight of the Order of the Sacred Cup, Prince of Nissyros in the Royal House Polanie-Patrikios, and a friend both of our late Royal Patron Prince Kermit of Miensk and of the Archbishop of Great Britain in the Apostolic Episcopal Church, Count George Boyer. He was also closely associated with the late Prince-Archbishop Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki.
Prince August was born in Germany as Franz von Schwaben in 1928, and just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War came with his mother, who was Scottish, to seek refuge in London. He adopted as an Anglicized version of his name Francis Robert Forsyth, Forsyth being his mother’s maiden name. His father was killed in a German air-raid on Poland during the war.
Early on, as a result of adoption by his mother’s new husband, he became known by the name Peter Austin de Lanza, under which name he became a successful professional photographer resident in the Kensington area of London. On 24 March 1979, he reverted to his former name of Francis Robert Forsyth. According to his own account, he had married and had children, but his wife and children were killed in a car crash in South Africa.
During the late 1960s, Prince August became associated with the esoteric bishop and noted spiritual teacher Richard, Duc de Palatine (1916-78). The Duc de Palatine had been ordained and consecrated bishop under the auspices of the Order of Antioch by Mar Georgius of Glastonbury in 1953, and was the leader of the Pre-Nicene Catholic Church, which was subsequently absorbed with other esoteric and Gnostic bodies under the aegis of the Sovereign Imperium of the Mysteries. The Duc de Palatine ordained Prince August priest under the name Peter de Lanza on 17 August 1969 and on 11 October 1970 de Lanza was consecrated bishop by the Duc de Palatine assisted by John Martyn Baxter. In the Duc de Palatine’s Open Letter to All Members of mid-1970 he announced his relocation to California and that the Pre-Nicene Catholic Church would now be known as the Church of the Gnosis; “As from July 4th, 1971, The Headquarters of the Pleroma, The Disciplina Arcani, and the Church of the Gnosis will be located in Los Angeles, in the State of California, within the United States of America. The Archon in charge for the United Kingdom, South Africa, Nigeria, and other parts of the world, will be the Revd. Peter de Lanza, who will act in our Name. Revd. De Lanza will be created a Bishop in October, which will grant him more power and authority to act in our name.” It was also said of Prince August that he had had involvement with the Golden Dawn via their group in Hertfordshire.
Prince August came to devolve his church responsibilities increasingly on Archbishop George Boyer, a leading assistant to the Duc de Palatine, and in due course in the 1980s left the Palatine organization altogether. After leaving, he initially assumed appointment as Presiding Bishop of the Apostolic Church of Avalon and in 1989 became Patriarch of Glastonbury in the Ecclesia Gnostica, both inner churches with an esoteric ministry whose authority had been transmitted to him by the late William Bernard Crow (Mar Basilius Abdullah III). However, he was also at this time given to stating that his religious identity was simply that of a Roman Catholic layman and denying strenuously to others that he had been ordained.
At this time, he completed the research into his ancestry that led to his confirmation that he was descended from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen and was heir to his titles, namely Head of the Name and Arms of the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen, Head of Line and Principal Lineal Descendant of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and as such Head of Line Pretender to the Thrones of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem, Duke of Swabia, of Apulia, and of Calabria, Prince of Taranto, Count of Beuren, Count of Lecce, and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon.
In due course, Prince August obtained a German passport in the name of von Hohenstaufen.
His descent was traced through a Russian lineage and was published around the turn of the century in a small book entitled “The Hohenstaufen Heritage”. This recounted that his ancestors had travelled into Russia in 1472 as part of the entourage of Princess Zoe Palaeologina’s marriage to Czar Ivan III, and were known thereafter as the Princes von Schwaben. Prince August’s grandfather, Prince Adolph Karlovich von Schwaben (b. 1875) had received recognition from the government of the Czar as the principal noble of his district and was endowed with a country estate of some 4,500 acres. In 1996, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Prince August was appointed an Honorary Member of the Russian College of Arms, which college also matriculated his arms.
Prince August adopted as his son and heir Francesco (now Prince Franz von Hohenstaufen), son and heir of the late HRH Prince Prof. Dr Don Mario Paciotti di Montefabbri.
In a remarkable and hitherto unprecedented course of events, the Roman Catholic authorities were approached and after investigation accepted Prince August’s nobiliary and ancestral claims. This led to Prince August being granted a personal audience with Pope St John Paul II.
On 10 October 2000, the feast-day of St Gereon, in the Basilica of Saint John (where Hohenstaufen ancestors were crowned), in The Lateran, a solemn Pontifical Mass was celebrated in the Corsini Chapel. Prayers were said for the past members of the Hohenstaufen family, and Benediction was said for all present members of the family, including the Head of the House of Hohenstaufen, Prince August, and the Heir Designate, Prince Francesco.
The Mass was concelebrated by H.E. Mons. Mario Rizzi, Papal Nuncio and titular Archbishop of Balneoregio; Mons Francesco Saverio Salerno, President of the Supreme Segnatura Apostolica; and The Rev. Don Roberto Modica, Chaplain of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Prayers were also said for all present members of the Sovereign Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon. Those present included H.I.H. Prince Francesco von Hohenstaufen; Mons. Franco Camaldo, Master of Ceremonies to His Holiness The Pope; Baron Marco Marrone di Castelsilano, Mayor of Nettuno; and members of the Roman Nobility. In July 2000, His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Palazzine (1912-2000) was appointed Spiritual Grand Protector of the Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon, and H.E. Mons. Mario Rizzi (1926-2012) was appointed as Spiritual Grand Prior. Sadly Cardinal Palazzini died on October 11th and was immediately replaced by His Eminence Henri Cardinal Schwery (1932-2021). Such appointments placed the Order of Swabia in a position regarding the Holy See that had otherwise only been granted to the Order of Malta.
Prince August established the College of Arms of the Sovereign Military Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon, and the Swabian Imperial House of Hohenstaufen. In addition, he revived the International Council of Chivalric Orders, known as the Pactio Secreta, in which he served as Imperator. During these years his home was a flat in a fashionable area of London, on the Fulham Road in Chelsea. He appointed as his Chancellor Professor Frederick Trowman-Rose, who has served a number of Royal Houses in similar roles as well as holding office in the City of London.
Prince August received numerous chivalric and nobiliary appointments, including Grand Cross of Justice in the Sovereign Order of the Oak, the Order of the White Eagle and Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Polish Government-in-exile). He was also appointed to various honours in the United States, where he served as Patron of PeaceWorks, a nonprofit that provided relief to children in war zones.
The International Knightly Order of St George under the late General Janos Karászy-Kulin was admitted to membership in the Pactio Secreta on 21 February 1998, and Prince August was appointed to honorary military rank in the Hungarian National Guard. Through the late General Karászy-Kulin a meeting with Prince August was planned with the future Prince Edmond de San Luigi around 2004, but unfortunately this did not take place.
Prince August formed a number of productive friendships, and Prince Kermit of Miensk regarded him fondly. Prince August bestowed the title of Prince of Hohenheim upon Prince Kermit (who reciprocated this honour, creating Prince August Prince of Nissyros in the Royal House Polanie-Patrikios) and elevated Archbishop George Boyer to the rank of Count. The present Prince-Abbot of San Luigi succeeded Prince Kermit as the second Prince of Hohenheim in 2015, while Archbishop Boyer’s title of count was inherited by his nephew when he died in 2008. Prince August bestowed other titles of nobility including the title of Prince of Montis Regalis upon George Howarth (d.2013), Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of the Oak.
With others, relations were at times more difficult. Prince August had an intelligent and cultured outlook on life but did not suffer fools or those who he perceived as having taken advantage of him. His biography stated that he “has taken an active role in maintaining traditional Western values and in defence of the West when faced with the Soviet drive for power.” He was also a strong opponent of homosexuality.
A 1991 letter to Prince Kermit in our archives finds Prince August complaining “As things are, I desperately need some highly intelligent, non-cranky, people to represent me in different parts of Europe, particularly in view of the very fluid situation politically. I received a very nice letter from the King of Spain in response to an enquiry I addressed to him about a bogus Bourbon. It does no harm to let these people know that one is not quite extinct.”
When the Polish government-in-exile led by Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki came to an end with the fall of Communism and the re-establishment of Polish democracy in 1990, it became necessary to seek a means of continuing the Order of St Stanislas, which had hitherto been highly active but was not a subject of interest of the new Polish republic. It was decided that in order to achieve this and establish the Order’s independence, the Order would be elevated to a sovereign entity, and accordingly Prince August raised Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki to the rank of Prince on 24 March 1991. Prince August received the first Grand Collar of the Sovereign Order of St Stanislas.
Sokolnicki had previously received Holy Orders in the Apostolic Episcopal Church in 1983, and had been appointed to office in Great Britain (as a deputy to Archbishop George Boyer) with a special commission towards the Polish community there. He had made substantial plans for his church mission, but was deterred from continuing these when Prince August ridiculed him in front of others.
Prince August died on 28 February 2007 and was succeeded in his titles by Prince Franz, the current Head of the Imperial House.
Disclaimer: Fraudulent company misusing the name of the Order of Corporate Reunion
The Order of Corporate Reunion notes that a company has been formed in England and Wales with the name “The Universal Primate of the Order of Corporate Reunion, Ltd.” and company number 13121319. This company is fraudulent and uses the name of the Order of Corporate Reunion, a registered service mark in the USA, without authorization from the Order.
The company’s directors are named as Richard Cumming, Victor-John Payne and David Coir. None of these men are members of the Order of Corporate Reunion. The fraudulent claims made by Cumming and others associated with him, which derive in turn from the imposture of Michael Kline, have been exposed and discussed in full here.
The only company which is authorized to represent the Order in the United Kingdom is the company limited by guarantee that is entitled simply “The Order of Corporate Reunion” with company number 12692440.
The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi 
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