ROME
Malta Today
Matthew Vella 18 December 2016
Civil war has broken out among the Knights of Malta, after Grand Master Fra Matthew Festing threatened disciplinary action against any member criticising his expulsion of senior Knight Albrecht Boeselager, the Grand Chancellor.
The international Catholic weekly The Tablet said the move has sparked “open warfare” inside the Church’s oldest and most illustrious military order, founded in the 11th century during the crusades and which ruled over Malta between 1530 until their expulsion by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798.
Boeselager, who as Grand Chancellor was the number three in the Order, told friends he had been accused of not following the Church’s teaching on the distribution of condoms in Africa. Festing denies this claim, saying Boeselager tried to conceal problems concerning his stewardship of the Order’s charitable work.
The Order’s patron and Vatican liaison, the arch-conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke – a critic of Pope Francis – was present when Festing asked Boeselager to resign.
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