FIGHT! Pope V Knights of Malta
Channel: Civil Disturbia
Date: 2017-02-02

The Knights of Malta have reinstated a German aristocrat sacked by British Grand Master (Under orders from the Pope) in row that's engulfed the Vaticunt.

SOURCE: The Telegraph (UK)
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/29/knights-malta-reinstate-german-aristocrat-had-sacked-british/amp/?client=ms-android-samsung

The governing body of the Knights of Malta has reinstated a senior Knight who was sacked by the British head of the chivalric order in a row that prompted the Pope's intervention.

A senior member of the Knights of Malta who was sacked in an acrimonious showdown between Pope Francis and the chivalric order’s British head has been reinstated.

Albrecht von Boeselager was dismissed last month by Matthew Festing, the British Grand Master of the ancient Catholic order, in a row over condoms being distributed in Asia as part of an aid project.

Mr von Boeselager, a German aristocrat whose father took part in a plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 as a young Wehrmacht officer, protested that his dismissal was deeply unfair, a complaint that resulted in Pope Francis launching an investigation. 

The row between the Vatican and one of the Catholic world’s oldest and most illustrious chivalric orders culminated last week in Mr Festing tendering his resignation to Pope Francis, in what was seen as a humiliating defeat for the former Guards officer.

Mr von Boeselager was sacked by the British Grand Master of the order in December but protested that his dismissal was deeply unfair. Mr von Boeselager was reinstated as Grand Chancellor, a post equivalent to foreign minister and interior minister, by the Sovereign Council, the governing body of the order, on Saturday.

All “disciplinary procedures” against him were immediately scrapped and his suspension from the order, which had been decreed by Mr Festing, was annulled.

At the same meeting, the Sovereign Council accepted Mr Festing’s resignation as Grand Master. The council said his resignation would be communicated to “the 106 heads of state with whom the order has diplomatic relations.”

The Order of Malta has the status of a sovereign entity, issuing its own passports, stamps and license plates and having permanent observer status at the United Nations.

A senior Knight, Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein, who is Austrian, will be temporary head of the order until a new Grand Master can be elected.

The charitable organisation will also be under the jurisdiction of a special papal delegate, who will be appointed by Pope Francis.

Mr Festing had previously refused to cooperate with the Pope’s commission of inquiry, saying the Vatican had no jurisdiction over the order.

But the Sovereign Council adopted a far more conciliatory tone, saying it would ensure “full collaboration” with the Pope’s man.

Mr von Boeselager had been accused by Mr Festing of turning a blind eye to the distribution of condoms in Myanmar as part of one of the order’s relief projects. Artificial contraception contravenes Catholic teaching.

Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, tendered his resignation to Pope Francis last week. But he insisted that he suspended the project as soon as he heard about it, and insiders said the row was used as a pretext by Mr Festing to dispose of his deputy, whom he regarded as being too liberal.

The confrontation was viewed as a microcosm of the battle within the Vatican between conservatives and liberals, as Pope Francis upsets hardliners with his more compassionate stance on issues such as granting Communion to divorcees who remarry.

Cambridge-educated Mr Festing was elected Prince and Grand Master of the Knights of Malta in 2008 and was expected to remain in the post for the rest of his life.

But he became the first Grand Master to resign since 1799 and only the fourth Grand Master to have been made to step down since 1169.