VATICAN CITY
Deseret News
By Nicole Winfield
Associated Press
Published: Feb. 4, 2017
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named a top Vatican archbishop as his new envoy to the troubled Knights of Malta and gave him “all necessary powers” to help the religious order reform its constitutions and elect a new leader, a clear sign he intends to continue exerting control over the sovereign organization in the near term.
In a letter Saturday, Francis tapped the No. 2 official of the secretariat of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, as his special delegate. He said Becciu would serve as his “exclusive spokesman” with the order and that his mandate would last until the election of the new grand master, expected within three months.
Becciu’s mandate confirmed the marginalization of Cardinal Raymond Burke, the conservative American — and Francis critic — who until now had been the sole papal liaison with the ancient aristocratic order, which counts generations of Europe’s Catholic nobility as its members and runs a vast humanitarian organization around the world.
Burke was instrumental in the crisis that has convulsed the Knights for the past three months, resulting in the resignation of the order’s grand master, Fra’ Matthew Festing, after he did public battle with Francis over a condom scandal and lost.
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