Image: From left to right – Marco Tosatti, Roberto de Mattei, Matthias von Gersdorff (Giuseppe Nardi not pictured)
On Saturday, 29 April, the Order of Malta elected Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre as the new interim leader of the Order. He will reign for only year. During that year, the Vatican plans to reform the Order fundamentally, including changes to the governance requirements that would open the role of Grand Master to those not among the ranks of the professed Knights (who take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience), but instead from a larger pool of candidates within the Order.
This 29 April event has put an end to the hopes of many Catholics that Fra’ Matthew Festing would be re-elected after he had earlier resigned in obedience to the request of Pope Francis himself. Different Catholic commentators well-informed about Vatican affairs have now kindly responded to OnePeterFive’s request to present their own analysis and comments on the current disruption in the Order of Malta. We thus gratefully present their considered opinions in the following sequence.
Professor Roberto de Mattei, Church Historian (Italy):
The election of the new Lieutenant ad interim of the Order of Malta, Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, does not resolve at all the crisis which shakes this old institution, but will just postpone resolving the internal conflict for another year. It is about a profound crisis which reflects the vast disorder currently reigning in the Church and in Western society. The Order of Malta has experienced for many years now its own spiritual decadence which especially stems from the loss of identity. The principal points of its identity which have been lost are the military character and the noble and sovereign character of the Order. The military spirit has disappeared when the merciful aspect of assistance (“obsequium pauperum”) started to dominate the primary goal of defending the Faith (“tuitio fidei”). In this actual situation of confusion, an Order of ancient traditions such as the one of Malta – if it were to remain loyal to its original vocation – could make an important current contribution to the defense of orthodoxy, especially due to the independence which assists and fortifies its noble and sovereign character. But the European nobility itself has ceased – and for quite some years now – to offer its best sons to the Church and to chivalrous institutions while now preferring, instead, to employ them in those economic-financial affairs which are much more lucrative.
In order to preserve today the spirit of the Order, a reform would be necessary so that the door of “governance” would be open to non-noble persons, among whom it is now easier to find loyal and combative Catholics. But, this would thereby also eliminate an important element of its identity. The third element – the sovereignty of the institution – was still alive until a few months ago, but Pope Francis has now practically destroyed it by a series of measures which led to the election of a lieutenant who is completely subordinated to the Holy See’s Secretariat of State.
Nevertheless, every crisis can be salutary if it produces a wholesome reaction. In the last months, with this crisis, a strong reaction has indeed manifested itself. Today, one is faced with the alternative between the return to religious and chivalric traditions, and a new transformation of the Order of Malta into a humanitarian institution which is imprinted with secularism.
Marco Tosatti, Journalist (Italy):
I am not a specialist about this very secretive and well guarded world that belongs to the Order of Malta. From the outside, I would say, however, that the election of an Italian interim Chief might be read as a balancing move, between the very aggressive German faction (also supported by the current Secretariat of State), and all the others. I read attentively what kath.net and OnePeterFive have written about the Report written by a Maltese Knight about his own audience with Cardinal Burke. And I have seen the letter written to Burke by the Pontiff. It is clear that the Pope shifted radically his former approach – probably advised or pushed by I do not know which forces and interests – to an unprecedented attack to the independence of a very particular military order. It is clear that the Secretariat of State, an expression of the powerful caste of the diplomats, has had strong ties with the German party; I do not know which interests lie beyond. Cardinal Burke is very clear when he talks about a strange, anonymous donation of 120 million Swiss Francs. All this does not smell of theology, or of a spiritual debate, but, rather, of money and business and power. And the real “golpe” [coup] made by the Secretariat of State will mark an historical event both for the Church and for the Order. But, I’m afraid, it will not be one of the good highlights of this current papal reign.
Matthias von Gersdorff, Catholic Commentator and Book Author (Germany):
The intervention of the Holy See in the Causa “Order of Malta” is more than disturbing both concerning the manner as well as the substantive case itself. Not only because one has intervened massively into the responsibilities of a sovereign power; but also because it was not done for the sake of the defense of proper Catholic positions – the necessity for which one would have easily understood – but for the sake of the defense of an adverse and doubtful position, namely the distribution of contraceptives (and abortifacients), a secular view of the centuries-old order, and a primacy of utilitarian pragmatism over tradition. Additionally, there follows the intervention of the Vatican with regard to financial events that are themselves hard to understand. All of this, taken together, leaves among “normal” laymen a fatal impression: that the Catholic identity has been sacrificed for the sake of short-sighted and, especially, morally dubious aims.
Giuseppe Nardi, Editor of Katholisches.Info (Germany):
The Boeselager affair was turned – with the help of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and without any urgent reasons – into a Maltese affair. The re-election on 29 April stood under the sign of a cover-up: the responsibilities for the distribution of contraceptives, and some opaque financial actions, have been covered-up. The impression: In this case, there is active a dubious clique under the leadership of von Boeselager and Cardinal Parolin. A nepotism [Vetterliwirtschaft, a Swiss expression] (among other things, it is about very much money in Switzerland) which has so much influence that it could move Pope Francis simply to dismiss a serving Grand Master who had been elected for life, and who had not at all burdened himself with guilt.
The Order of Malta fell victim to a downright papal weakness: to protect insouciantly his “amigos” [friends] and ruthlessly to sacrifice others. The outside effect of the affair concerns the whole Catholic Church and is disastrous: it increases the impression that, under Pope Francis, the non-negotiable principles are to be given up, after all. The Right to Life from conception until the natural death is now under an all-out attack. The landmarks which finally Benedict XVI had clearly stamped into the ground – and with mighty words as a secure orientation – are being now, in a nocturnal action, dug out again in order to blur the borders. The papal silence about both the mass murder of the unborn children and about the distribution of contraceptives (and abortifacients) in the field of Boeselager’s responsibility is rooted in the same way of thinking.
The election of an Italian as the governor of the Order could, however, have positive effects. Less positive, however, is that a new Grand Master was not elected. The recent events are not a good omen. The signal is clear: the special party wishes to change the Constitution of the Maltese Order and one could therefore not claim that they would not have – with their Teutonic efficiency – great plans. With the Secretariat of State behind Boeselager and with a papal commissioner on the tail of the governor, a “reform” based on special interests is threatening to emerge.
In a few years, the Order of Malta will celebrate its 1000th Anniversary. An age which simply makes all secular actors’ jaw drop out of envy, especially in our fast-moving time. The question is whether or not the Order will be able to preserve – next to its name and other external signs – that which has characterized it since its foundation and which has maintained its vivid existence for so long: its Catholic identity and its special Catholic charism as a hospitaller and knightly order. This identity and this charism are not to be arbitrarily bent nor to be further moulded; they will decide – fully apart from efficiency and mere human judgment – the Order’s own survival or decline.
After reading these view points, the first thing that popped into my head was the quote from the movie “Jerry Maguire” – “Show me the money!”
I’m afraid the Order was effectively destroyed when Fra Festing resigned. To give the pope powers he has not been endowed with from on high is to bow down to tyranny.
The Pope has destroyed a thousand year old order, as he, very effectively, continues his attempt to destroy the timeless dogmas of Holy Mother Church.
Malta is a foreshadowing of what is to come for our Church, if this trajectory in the Vatican continues without opposition by our Catholic leaders.
The fort is betrayed from within. With Henry VIII all Bishops followed the money and power, except St. John Fisher. I feel the Universal Church faces a similar delima, except much worse. The apostates hold the power from within, and with the age of mass communication their damage is incalculable. Very depressing in old age. St John Fisher, Ora Pro Nobis.
I often ask for the instecession of Ss John Fisher, Bishop and Sir Thomas Moore, martyrs.
There are Muslim royal family members in the Catholic knighthoods.
This alone tells us that the fundamentals were being abandoned.
Huh? Really?
Stunning. Can you be more specific?
I would have to have proof of that.
It looks like anything this Pope touches ends up in a disaster for the Church
Another perspective along with those given in this article:
The Masons Are Rooting For Bergoglio. But He Views Them Like the Plague by Sandro Magister
Magister reports that Pope Francis thinks SMOM is a hive of freemasonry. The blog post is an interesting read. Is Francis truly consumed with ousting freemasons, real or imagined? Or is it just cover to root out opponents? Has Francis been told the order is full of masons by those who wish to purge their enemies (and control all that money)?
When I was in the corporate world it was taught and emphasized to us that objectives needed to be SMART
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Achievable
R = Realistic
T = Time Bound
‘Go find the Masons in SMOM and root them out’. Later, ‘You haven’t found any masons yet? I know for sure they are there. Go find them and root them out.’
How is this assignment achievable or even realistic??!!!
[And I am not even bringing up the Pope speaking out of the two sides of his mouth regarding Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager and the contraception controversy. This on its own ought to be enough to show that it doesn’t matter what the Pope says (e.g. he is against Freemasons, after all he paid a visit to the villa of a head Mason), but what he does].
Marco Tosatti expresses the fear that the Malta intervention “…will not be one of the good highlights of this current papal reign.” I am at a loss to muster a single event in this pontificate that has any luster to it at all. Cloaked in ambiguity, contrarianism and Catholic self-loathing, will hindsight regard this the gravest moment in our history – given the bitter reality that the enemy is not without, but very much within the sheepfold?
To be honest I have already managed to put the Knights of Malta out of my mind as yet another casualty of Vatican II and all its stands for. As a medieval historian, at least by education, the fact that the Order rolled over and allowed this Argentinian buffoon to take control of it burns my heart, but it’s just more evidence that the post-Vatican II Church is simply an effeminate, inchoate mess which doesn’t deserve to survive.
If right now Festing could stand before the men who held off thousands of Turks some centuries ago I shudder to think what they would say to him. He should never, ever have agreed to resign. Maybe Bergoglio lied to him, I don’t know. I don’t really care: whatever Bergoglio said, he should have told him to sod off.
Write the Knights of Malta off. They’re dead in the water, Vatican II-ized. Onwards and upwards for the rest of us.
Pope Benedict should also not have agreed to resign.
I cried when he resigned. It makes me sad to even think of it.
I could not agree more!
In the end, its about the money…..and secrecy.
Again, I make the words of Holy Scripture my own prayer with regard to this Pope:
” Dies eius fiant pauci, et episcopatum eius accipiat alter.”
Picture this: an organization which has persevered through good times and bad, through persecution and popularity for hundreds and hundreds of years, is suddenly turned upside down when its leader is forced to resign. The leader is a humble, meek man who obligingly acquiesces to a group of corrupt, faithless rogues, who take over the organization and railroad it in a direction where it begins to flout Catholic moral doctrine and practice. All this done in the name of “mercy”. All protests are greeted with scorn and ridicule.
Excuse me……you may be thinking that I’m referring to the Knights of Malta. No, I’m actually talking about the Catholic Church.
The parallels are uncanny, are they not?
Is the good Lord trying to tell us something with the Knights of Malta scandal? Is it an example in miniature of what has happened to the Church as a whole? Is the Knights fiasco a metaphor for the corrupt, destructive Bergoglio pontificate? Is Festing the alter Benedict? Is the Lord painting a picture for us of Benedict’s downfall?
Good comment, but Benedict”s downfall?
The number one question about that purported “crisis” which was triggered by the Pope himself and never would have been happened if Festing didn’t resign is:
Was Festing obliged to obey the Pope since the dismissal of Boeselager was a pure internal disciplinary affair, the kind of which has nothing to do with issues of Faith or morals?
Which actions the Vatican could undertake against the SMOM if Festing hadn’t surrendered ? In my opinion, none.
My explanation about the sudden change in the Pope’s mind was the fear of a huge financial scandal splashing high ranked people both in the Order and in the Vatican, if the lawsuit against Mrs Ariana Slinger, the head of CPVGT, were not dropped by Festing.
An indeed they were dropped immediately once Festing had resigned. Festing obeyed because he didn’t want to endorse the responsibility to have let bad guys entering the order and doing bad things in his back, unknowingly to him, the Grand Master.
Where’d the comments go?
They should be back now. Our upgraded server is secure (see the HTTPS protocol in the URL bar) but that little change temporarily knocked all the comments offline until I could re-map them.
The number one question about that purported “crisis” which was triggered by the Pope himself (and never would have been happened if Festing didn’t resign) is:
Was Festing obliged to obey the Pope since the dismissal of Boeselager was a pure internal disciplinary affair, the kind of which has nothing to do with issues of Faith or morals?
Which actions the Vatican could undertake against the SMOM if Festing hadn’t surrendered ? In my opinion, none. Excommunication ? Don’t make me laughing.
My explanation about the sudden change in the Pope’s mind was the fear of a huge financial scandal splashing high ranked people both in the Order and in the Vatican, if the lawsuit against Mrs Ariana Slinger, the head of CPVGT, were not dropped by Festing.
An indeed they were dropped immediately once Festing had resigned. Festing obeyed because he didn’t want to endorse the responsibility to have allowed bad guys entering the order and doing bad things in his back, unknowingly to him, the Grand Master.
I could see a picture of Fra’ Giacomo dalla Torre, just after he was elected for one year: Behind him, the smile on the face of Von Boeselager, the man through which this mess happened, spoke a lot.
The Knights surrendered to Francis in the same way as they surrendered to Napoleon in 1798 on his way from France to Egypt. They didn’t even fire one bullet, nor the frenchs.
The Pope had no right to oblige Festing to resign. He resigned anyways.
The SMOM is nothing but the shadow of the glorious Catholic military order it was centuries ago. It deserves it’s fate.
So little country, but so much problems…
http://www.confiduss.com/en/jurisdictions/malta/demographics/