Order of Malta: Draft Reform Would Impose Term Limits, End Veto Power of Grand Master

The Pillar ^ | 4/25/22

[marshmallow]

What’s new: The newly obtained text of a draft constitution submitted to Pope Francis by the Order of Malta’s leadership would introduce dramatic new limits on the office of Grand Master, including term limits, the power of the Sovereign Council to override his decisions, and the requirement that the Grand Chancellor sign off on decrees of the Grand Master.

What it means: The proposals are among competing options under consideration by Pope Francis, as he decides the order’s future. Critics of the proposed plan say that it would turn the 1,000-year-old religious order into an “international NGO,” by dividing its international diplomatic and charitable work from the religious life of the professed knights.

Why it matters: The office of Grand Master, and the role of the first degree knights, who profess religious vows, are at the center of an increasingly bitter divide among the knights themselves — suggesting that, even after Pope Francis makes a decision about the constitutional reform of the order, the knights will remain divided among themselves.

As the knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta wait for a final decision from Pope Francis on the constitutional reform of their order, they remain locked in a fierce internal debate over a controversial draft constitution put forward by their own leadership.

The text, obtained this week by The Pillar, would reorder the knights’ governing institutions and offices, with dramatic changes proposed for the office of Grand Master which would, according to supporters of the plan, separate his roles as superior of a religious order and “constitutional monarch” of a sovereign international entity.

[Da Coyote]

Did they “choose poorly”?

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Of all of the communities within the Church, the Knights of Malta should have been the one to most successfully pushback against needless reforms.

However, obedience to the Pope is the ultimate concern for most devout Catholics.

So the Knights of Malta will become just another NGO soon dispensing birth control and providing abortions for those poor women of color who can't afford them.

[FlyingEagle]

Actually, the Pope is pushing back against the German faction of NWO-NGO-secularists in the Order, to strengthen the role of the religious/professed members in governance.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Grand Chancellor Albercht von Boselager, was asked to resign by Grand Master Fra’ Matthew Festing because condoms were distributed in Myanmar under von Boselager's watch.

Rather than agree with Festing (and Cardinal Burke) the Pope kicked Festing to the curb and reinstated von Boselager.

The order appears to have been compromised by Modernity and a good many were on von Boselager's side.

Because of the internal dissension the Pope has decided to take complete control and kick Cardinal Burke to the curb as well.

It's sad that an organization that has so much financial clout and could have resisted the Pope by threatening to hold back funding, decided instead to just cave to every whim of the Pope.