After
trying to subvert the order and command of the Pope, the head of the
Catholic order, the Knights of Malta has been forced to resign.
Matthew Festing has resigned as leader of the Knights of Malta after a conflict that
tested the authority of Pope Francis. Photograph: POOL New / Reuters/Reuters
The head of Catholic order the Knights of Malta has resigned over a
bitter dispute with the Vatican about free condoms that become a test
of the authority of liberalising Pope Francis.
The Rome-based chivalric and charity institution said Grand Master
Matthew Festing, 67, resigned after Pope Francis asked him to step down
at a meeting on Tuesday. Grand masters of the institution, which was
founded in the 11th century, usually keep their positions for life.
“The pope asked him to resign and he agreed,” the
spokesperson said, adding that the next step was a formality in which
the group’s Sovereign Council would have to sign off on the highly
unusual resignation.
Festing and the Vatican have been locked in a bitter dispute since
one of the order’s top knights, Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von
Boeselager, was sacked in December after the charity distributed condoms
as part of a medical project for the poor.
Von Boeselager appealed to the pope, who appointed a five-member
commission to look into the unusual circumstances of the sacking.
Festing refused to cooperate and called the commission illegitimate.
Festing’s resignation was the latest twist in a battle of wills between the heads of two of the world’s oldest institutions.
Festing, a Briton, had denounced the papal commission as
intervention in the order’s sovereign affairs, accused members having a
conflict of interest and defiantly set up his own internal commission.
The Vatican, in turn, rejected what it said was an attempt to
discredit members of the commission and ordered the leaders of the
institution to cooperate with the inquiry. The papal commission was due
to deliver its findings to the pope at the end of January.
The all-male top leaders of the Knights of Malta are not clerics
but take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the pope. The
institution has 13,500 members, 25,000 employees and 80,000 volunteers
worldwide.
The order – formed in the 11th century to provide protection and
medical care for pilgrims to the Holy Land – has the trappings of a
sovereign entity. It maintains diplomatic relations with more than 100
states and the EU, and permanent observer status at the United Nations.
When Festing fired Von Boeselager he accused the German of hiding
the fact that he allowed the use of condoms when he ran Malteser
International, the order’s humanitarian aid agency.
Von Boeselager and his supporters said the condom issue was an
excuse by Festing and Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke – an arch-conservative
who has accused the pope of being too liberal – to increase their power.
The church does not allow the use of condoms as a means of birth
control and says abstinence and monogamy in heterosexual marriage is the
best way to stop the spread of AIDS.
Von Boeselager said he closed two projects in the developing world
when he discovered condoms were being distributed but kept a third
running for a while because closing it would have abruptly ended all
basic medical services to poor people.
Francis has said he wants the 1.2 billion-member church to avoid
so-called “culture wars” over moral teachings and show mercy to those
who cannot live by all its rules, especially the poor. (Reporting by
Philip Pullella, editing by G Crosse and Cynthia Oserman)
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