In 2013, the Fort Worth TX chapter of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem hosted the Annual Meeting and Investiture events for the Southwestern Lieutenancy of the order. The honor of hosting the Annual meeting rotates between the major cities in each state of the Lieutenancy.
The Southwestern Lieutenancy is headquartered in Houston, and covers the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas. See: (
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From the 2013 event website: (
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"FORT WORTH SECTION
The Fort Worth Section of the Southwestern Lieutenancy will host the Annual Meeting and Investiture on October 25 - 28, 2013.
Reservations may be made at the following hotels:
Omni Hotel Fort Worth
Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel
We invite all our members to support this meeting through prayer, participation and through the various committees.
Travelers Masses
St. Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth (a short walk from the Omni Hotel)"
An article about the event can be found here, at the website of North Texas Catholic: (
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"Cardinal O’Brien visits Arlington to invest new Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre
By Jerry Circelli
Correspondent
Nov 4 2013
ARLINGTON — In the Holy Land, a region made sacred by Jesus Christ during his life on earth, the Christian population has declined from 30 percent 60 years ago to only two percent today, according to a Church report. The area, now comprising modern-day Israel and Palestine, is best described by Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, as the “singular, unique part of the world where Christ walked, taught, performed miracles, and rose from the dead.”
To preserve and promote Christianity in the Holy Land and to sustain the Catholic Church’s charitable work there, the cardinal traveled recently from Rome to the Diocese of Fort Worth. Here, from Oct. 25-28, he led the annual meeting of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (EOHSJ), Southwestern Lieutenancy of the United States. The gathering drew in nearly 1,000 knights, ladies, and clergy of the lieutenancy, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico. This regional unit is one of 61 lieutenancies around the world that are part of the 23,000-member EOHSJ.
As Grand Master of the EOHSJ (a Vatican office), Cardinal O’Brien welcomed 140 new members to the order’s Southwestern Region through a formal Mass and Rite of Solemn Investiture at Vietnamese Martyrs Church in Arlington. Among them were 22 clergy candidates, including Monsignor Michael Olson, rector of Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, and Father Raymond McDaniel, parochial administraoter of St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Lewisville, and Father Jeff Poirot, pastor Holy Family Parish in Fort Worth. The newly invested laymen, laywomen, and clergy joined with fellow members at the gathering and filled every seat in the main worship area of the largest-capacity church in the diocese.
Concelebrating the Mass with Cardinal O’Brien was Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, grand prior of the Southwestern Lieutenancy, along with several clergy including archbishops, bishops, and priests who are members of the order.
As the order continues to flourish around the world, its members’ resolve to help their brothers and sisters in the Holy Land remains strong.
According to John Pritchett, an EOHSJ knight from Fort Worth, from 2001 to 2010 the order sent nearly $80 million to the Holy Land. EOHSJ provides financial support for Holy Land projects, including church and school construction, humanitarian aid, as well as repair and maintenance of holy sites such as the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem — the site of Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection. Pritchett said the order’s Southwestern Lieutenancy has consistently ranked second of all lieutenancies worldwide in financial assistance to the Holy Land.
“The order is another apostolate for the faithful to humbly live the faith and follow the Lord's commandment to love God and to love our neighbor,” Pritchett said, “and to do it in the land of his Incarnation.”
The order’s mission is actually four-fold, as it aims to:
strengthen the practice of Christian life among its members;
aid the charitable, cultural, and social works and institutions of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land;
preserve and propagate the faith in the Holy Land; and
uphold the rights of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land.
The order traces its origin back to the First Crusade in 1099, when its leader Godfrey de Bouillon, liberated Jerusalem and its holy sites, including the Holy Sepulchre, from Muslim forces.
Ben Doskocil of Arlington, who was knighted into the EOHSJ 40 years ago and took part in the recent meeting, said he considers himself and fellow members to be crusaders of another sort now.
“Our goal is still to keep a Christian presence in the Holy Land,” Doskocil said. “Where people before us were crusaders with horses and swords, we are crusaders in a different way. We’re doing it now through prayers and financial support.” Doskocil and his wife, Mary Frances, have made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and are proud to support Christian businesses there.
Mina Milburn, a member of the order for the past six years, has also visited the Holy Land with her husband, Tony. Like the Dosckocils and the many other knights and ladies who have made the journey, they say the pilgrimage profoundly affected them. Although not a requirement for membership, a Holy Land visit is strongly encouraged.
“It’s like experiencing the material and the immaterial,” said Mina. “God gave us the world. He appeared in a particular place and did specific human things and God actions, and those places are important, just as the graces, the miracles, and the salvation are important.”
Commenting on the strong attendance at the annual gathering in the diocese, Mina added, “I saw so many men being knighted and women becoming ladies. It is such a beautiful thing that we have an order that is thriving and growing at this time in the history of the Church. And its mission is at the root and the core of our faith.”
New members Laura and Diaz Murray of Wichita Falls were among the new investees and look forward to their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. For now, however, they are thankful for the blessing of fellowship with multitudes of devout Catholics through the EOHSJ.
“This is like another layer of faith for us,” said Laura. “The more you experience in your faith, the more you want to learn and grow in it. This is another part of our faith journey.”
New investees Debbie and Rob Meyer of Keller were moved by their experience in much the same way, especially the investiture Mass. During the ceremony, Cardinal O’Brien formally knighted the men through the medieval ritual of dubbing — touching his sword to each shoulder.
“It was unbelievable,” said Rob. “It was really an awesome experience. I’ve had ceremonies like this before. I was a naval officer, and I’m in the Knights of Columbus, but this was really something special.”
Rob explained that when a friend encouraged him to consider membership in the EOHSJ, he and his wife became interested after learning more about the order’s mission and its accomplishments.
“Both of us feel very strongly about supporting the Church in the Holy Land and the treasures of our faith,” said Rob. “But it’s not just that. We welcome the challenge to become better Catholics.”
Debbie agreed, adding that one of the most important aspects for her involvement with the EOHSJ is “growing closer to the body of Christ, not only in the local Church but to the Church that was established in Palestine by Jesus.”
Cardinal O’Brien told the North Texas Catholic that the large number of knights and ladies filling the church during the Mass and Rite of Solemn Investiture was impressive, adding that he was moved by the dedication of members in the Southwestern Lieutenancy.
“Their solidarity is so important for any endeavor, but certainly for the success of what we’re trying to do in the Holy Land,” Cardinal O’Brien said. “It sends a message to all our members and to others that the Church is very concerned about the Holy Land.”
The cardinal added, “This is a strong lieutenancy. The leadership and the enthusiasm of the knights and ladies are really contagious.”
Cardinal O’Brien said he was also impressed that an overwhelming number of members gathered for the weekend had already made pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Earlier in the day, during one of the assemblies, he said he asked those in attendance to stand up if they had made a pilgrimage. “I looked out and about 90 percent of them were standing,” he said.
“No one can go there and leave unaffected,” said Cardinal O’Brien. “There is an overflowing grace in that land, still. Christ is still very generous in distributing his gifts to those who are concerned about his own family, his own people, and are concerned about the work that He did and that it continue.”
Through the work of thousands of current EOHSJ members, including those gathered in the Diocese of Fort Worth for the annual meeting and investiture, the order’s mission continues now as it has for centuries.
“What we’re saying is that you’re not alone,” Cardinal O’Brien said. “And this means a great deal to the diminishing number of Christians in the Holy Land and for all the people there who are looking for solutions.”"
This history of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem comes from the website for the North American Lieutenancies of the Order: (
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"What follows is a brief consensus view of the history of the Roman Catholic Order of the Holy Sepulchre. There was also a Byzantine Order of the Holy Sepulchre, but this seems to have faded away, and the internet domain at which the Byzantine Order's website used to be located is now owned by a cemetery in New York State.
The origins of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem are generally thought to date back to the First Crusade, when the Crusade's leader, Godfrey de Bouillon, liberated Jerusalem. As a component of his reorganisation of the religious, military and public bodies of the territories newly freed from Muslim control, he founded the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. According to most accounts of the Crusades, the first King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I, assumed the leadership of this canonical order in 1103, and reserved the right for himself and his successors (as agents of the Patriarch of Jerusalem) to appoint Knights to it, should the Patriarch be absent or unable to do so.
The Order’s members included not only the Regular Canons (Fratres) but also the Secular Canons (Confratres) and the Sergentes. The latter were armed knights chosen from the crusader troops for their qualities of valour and dedication; they vowed to obey the Augustinian Rule of poverty and obedience and undertook specifically to defend the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Places, under the command of the King of Jerusalem.
Very soon after the First Crusade the troops – including the Knights of the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre – began to return to their homelands. This led to the creation of priories all over Europe, which were part of the Order as they came under the jurisdiction of the noble knights or prelates who had been invested at the Holy Sepulchre itself and who, although they were no longer in the direct service of the King of Jerusalem, continued to belong to the Order of Canons.
The Order began to decline as a cohesive military body of knights after Saladin regained Jerusalem in 1182, and completely ceased to exist in that format after the defeat of Acre in 1291. The passing of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem left the Order without a leader, though it continued to survive in the European priories thanks to the protection of sovereigns, princes, bishops and the Holy See. The priories kept alive the ideals of the Crusader Knights: propagation of the Faith, defence of the weak, charity towards other human beings. With the exception of events in Spain, it was only rarely that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre ever took part again in military action to defend Christianity.
. . .
In 1847 the Patriarchate was restored and Pope Pius IX refounded and modernized the Order, issuing a new Constitution which placed it under the direct protection of the Holy See and assigned its government to the Latin Patriarch. The Order’s fundamental role was also redefined: to uphold the works of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, whilst preserving the spiritual duty of propagating the Faith.
. . .
In February 1996, Pope John Paul II further enhanced the Order’s status. Today it is a Public Association of faithful with a legal canonical and public personality . .
Over and above the Order's historic connotations and its eventful progress in times gone by, the valuable and interesting aspects of the Order today lie in the role assigned to it, which it pursues within the sphere of the Catholic Church and through its administrative structure and its local organizations in various communities."