[Templar]

#3628 |

British Major Gen., Sir Roy Redgrave, 1st Grand Master of the newly formed OSMTH.org (formed in 1995)

This Order, the OSMTJ, neither endorses nor repudiates the following document, but merely presents it as the written account of the OSMTH.org’s first Grand Master

——————— Why The OSMTH.org Left Fernando de Sousa Fontes ————————–
(From the archives of the OSMTH.org’s first Grand Master, Sir Roy Redgrave -June 5, 2003)

Doubtful Templar Legacy:
This New Templar Order was founded in 1705 by the Duke of Orleans, nearly 400 years after its suppression by Pope Clement V, survived the French Revolution. It was rebuilt in 1804 and protected by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Grand Master at that time was Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat, but in France, many did not recognize him. Palaprat died in 1838.

In 1840, Sir William Sidney Smith, the English Grand Prior, became Grand Master. He was not accepted by some French Templars, who had their own Regents. He died in 1858. The order was cancled in France in 1892 by the Regent, Joséphin Péladan after serious scandals. All publications and archives of the Knights Templar were placed in the National Archives of France, where they are still to this day.

In 1894, a kind of “Templar Secretariat” was founded in Belgium. Perhaps the French, after the scandal in 1932, moved and founded another Templar organization in Belgium, whose president was Theodore Kovias.

Emile Clement Isaac Vandenberg became Regent of the OSMTH in 1935

In 1935, Emile Clement Joseph Isaac Vandenberg was appointed Regent. We believe that, to prevent the Nazi intentions of taking the archives, that control of the archives was transferred to the Order of a neutral country. In May 1940, after the German occupation of Belgium, Vandenberg might have expected an immediate arrest.

On December 23, 1942, 2.5 years later, the archives were transferred by Vandenberg (he was convinced to
do so) to the Consul of Portugal that was Antonio Campello de Souza Fontes. Antonio de Sousa Fontes records that he was unsure of its own legitimacy, but happy to accept the title of Regent. August 20, 1948, he wrote his wish in a lengthy form in French.

On June 30, 1956, Antonio de Sousa Fontes was obviously very ill when he wrote “Basic Armorer” Order in Sao Paulo (Brazil), Dr. Jao Egan d ‘Abreu Zhau d’Abreu Egan, Yes Kunje Pinto, Marquis Telecom, Earl Priene, which asked that he told Prince HRHS
grandmaster Gabriel House Inellas that it was because of Antonio de Sousa Fontes’s state of health does not
make their connection with the Order, and gave up any mail, and position it held. So for nearly four years, there was no relationship between Antonio Fontes and the Order. Was Antonio de Sousa Fontes even alive all of that time?

On February 15, 1960, Antonio de Sousa Fontes died in Portugal. A typed codicil was created by his son Fernando. Antonio de Sousa Fontes’s “Signature” was on the will below the printed supplement, which was presented by his son Fernando Fontes, certified by a public notary, but the actual Certificate of Will was dated February 26, 1960 – that is, eleven days after the death of his father Antonio de Sousa Fontes!

In 1970, the Templars held a secret meeting on a Portuguese island in the Atlantic. It is not known whether Fernando Fontes was present, but the attendees chose as their Grand Master the Polish General Antoine Zdrojewski who lived in Paris.

On February 22, 1971, Grand Master Antoine Zdrojewski presided over the faculty Council held in Paris at Richelieu I (referring to the residence of Grand Master Zdrojewski who at that time resided on Rchelieu Street in Paris). Their meeting’s first decree expelled Fernando de Sousa Fontes, Lombard, Jean-Paul de Combloux, Marcel Cousteau and Alfred Zappelli (Swiss Grand Prior). They lost all of their prerogatives, schedules and the right to wear the robes and insignia of the Order. The reason given for this expulsion was that they did not show signs of respect for the hierarchy of the Order and for legitimate and serious violations of the rules of discipline of the Order. These four personalities had no intention of losing power. This branch of the Order was full of intrigue driven by General Antoine Zdrojewski. Fontes always wanted to ignore the ancient statutes (until he could re-write them himself), especially when his monopoly power was threatened.

Fernando de Sousa Fontes found it essential to establish his origin to a dubious title of honor. He was granted the title of Count, “Pascal Roman Emperor and King of the Big Gotha, King of the Bosporus.” In reality, Fernando de Sousa Fontes and his father had purchased their fake titles (including “Count”) from a builder from New Jersey by the name of William Musser. Fernando purchased almost one hundred honors and titles! He has eleven different Grand Collars, twenty-three Grand Cross’s, four of Chivalry, the twelve titles of “Grand Officer,” five doctoral study degrees, twenty-three of the Company, fifteen honors, medals, and diplomas. Fernando de Sousa Fontes proclaimed himself “Consul” to Costa Rica and Ecuador without the recognition of the Government of Portugal. Fontes was a Free Mason of the Masonic Order of Switzerland since 1959.

Reasons the Grand Priories of the OSMTH Lost Confidence in Fernando Fontes:

– In 1992, Great Britain’s Visitor (designee) visited Fontes in Portugal, and raised a lot of questions, but he did not get any satisfactory answers.

– In 1993, the Grand Prior of Spain sent a list of questions prepared in advance to Fontes. No reply was received, and no discussion with Fontes was allowed.

– In 1994 there was an agreement in Augsburg, Germany. The Grand Prior of Finland asked Fontes for the minutes of the previous meeting and the answers to the written questions they had presented to Fontes. To this, Fontes refused to answer but then he asked Britain and NATO to organize a meeting.

– In March 1995, in Paris, Fontes showed letters from the Grand Priories around the world to discuss the points for London, where they planned to meet in June, 1994.

– Fontes declined to comment or to suggest alternative locations [besides London]. Four weeks prior to the meeting in London, Fontes canceled the meeting. Sixty Americans had already booked tickets. Thus, a secret meeting was announced by those 16 Grand Priors of participating nations who were now opposed to Fernando de Sousa Fontes.

– In November, 1995 Fontes refused all requests to meet his Grand Priors in Salzburg to agree on objectives, charitable activities, appointments of the Grand Council, subcommittees to review the statutes, or historical projects. Those Grand Priors now opposed to Fontes planned to contact the Autonomous Priories which were already separated from Fontes. In March 1996, in Paris, the Great Council opposed to Fontes met. This Great Council offered Fontes the proposed title of “Regent,” but Fernando de Sousa fontes refused this offer, and refused to hold democratic elections for the position of Grand Master. He was then rejected by several Grand Priories. His intervention in the affairs of the United States contrary to the wishes of the United States Grand Prior, led to a legal trial that Fontes lost. He is now a person “nongrata” in the United States.

The Questions that Fontes Refused to Acknowledge or Discuss:

1. Fontes would not provide any account of income and expenditures of the Order. For example the United States Grand Priory alone paid him $15,000 annually.
2. Fontes refused to release any information at all about other International Priories or who were their officials.
This was eventually achieved by our own attempts to find out.
3. Fontes would not release the names of the 13 members of the Grand Magisterium. We found that the only
independent participants were his wife and his son.
4. Fontes would not give permission for any Grand Prior to participate in elections to the Grand
Magisterium. The Grand Magisterium remained entirely the prerogative of Fontes in Portugal.
5. Fontes was not willing to confirm that the Grand Master will be duly elected. Grand Priors didn’t want a dynastic succession.
But since 1995, it was noted that Fontes began calling himself Grand Master.
6. Fontes would not permit any consultation Statutes 1993 (not 1970 Constitution).
7. Fontes would not provide access to the Templar archives for historical research. He did not show that he
believes in the power of a guardian.
8. Fontes would not adopt English as the international language of the Order. He also decreed that the official languages would be Portuguese, Latin, and French.

* General and Attorney Ronald S. Mangum can attest to the veracity of this document as he assisted Grand Master Sir Roy Redgrave to compile the above archive of his writings in 2003. Read more about General Mangum here: https://www.theknightstemplar.org/general-ronald-mangum/

Until 2018, this article was also published on the OSMTH.org’s own website at this address & from the Way Back Machine you can still see that they published it: https://jvbq.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/why-osmth-left-mr-fontes.pdf
Due to the embarrassment of the facts it holds of the OSMTH being less than 25 years old and having sued its Grand Master leaving it without a legitimate line of succession, they have deleted it from their website. When the OSMTH.org sued their Grandmaster Fernando de Sousa Fontes over the reasons described above, their Grand Master Fontes crated a letter of expulsion removing all of the Leaders of the SMOTJ (in the USA) and all those abroad and in Europe that joined the SMOTJ in their rebellion. Therefore they were cut off and began again as a new order in 1995. That is the reason that today, the OSMTH.org is conducting merger talks with Sussana Fontes, daughter of the passed away Grand Master. They hope that Sussana will join them to bring them the legitimacy they so desire.