Gentlemen,
Here is an update on the work I did on your suggestions, and I hope that you will help me overcome the last hurdle.
The first mod suggested by Kobra doesn't work, and I had to kick it off my test site the brutal way, by restoring from backup.
However, the second one, by Juxi Zoza, is great, and it will solve all my problems...eventually.
It has readme instructions in all the subfolders so it's very easy to customize.
There's just one thing where I am stumbling, how do I customize this line in
/includes/templates/my_template/common/html_header.php

<script language="javascript" src='<?php echo (($request_type == 'SSL') ? 'https://secure.comodo.net' : 'http://www.trustlogo.com'); ?>/trustlogo/javascript/trustlogo.js'></script>
<?php

to work with what the cert authority stipulates in the post above?
Thanks in advance for the great support.