Reflections of the Grand Master - Summer 2017

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Visconti di Modrone and Borromeo The new Governor General, Ambassador Visconti di Modrone, welcomed by his predecessor, Professor Borromeo.

By this time the news has made the rounds. And what good news it is: Ambassador Leonardo Visconti di Modrone has become the new Governor General of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. We are very blessed and grateful to the Ambassador for accepting this challenging call.

Not that our new Governor General is a stranger to challenge! An accompanying biographical summary in this issue will detail his long and distinguished diplomatic career in service to Italy. Indeed, he took up these new responsibilities soon after serving as principal consultant on behalf of the host nation for the G7 Summit which took place in Taormina the end of last May.

Interestingly, the Visconti and Borromeo families have been close friends for many generations of strong Milanese Catholic bonds. The Ambassador’s ancestors number 7 Archbishops of Milan and one Pontiff, Pope Gregory X (Tebaldo Visconti), from 1272 to 1276. More to the point, he now enters office with impressive experience in areas where the majority of our Lieutenancies are located: Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia. (There’s hardly a modern language he does not speak!)

He begins duties humbly aware of the “learning curve” ahead and with the competent assistance of Governor General Emeritus Borromeo will navigate the months ahead, most anxious to listen and to meet as many of our Lieutenancies as his energies and schedule allow.

The blessings that have come to us under the extraordinary leadership of Professor Agostino Borromeo will continue, in God’s Providence, under Ambassador Leonardo Visconti. We gladly and gratefully welcome him, his wife Anna into our family, along with their three daughters and six grandchildren.

I know how encouraged he is and will continue to be by the many expressions of support he is receiving. (Hopefully, our readers will view a short video on His Excellency’s accession, Renewal in Continuity, on YouTube). 


Edwin Cardinal O’Brien


(August 23, 2017)