Knights of Malta acknowledge damage from Vatican showdown

ROME – The Knights of Malta religious order is seeking to move beyond its showdown with the Vatican, even while acknowledging the crisis had hurt donations for its humanitarian work and put into question the future of a conservative cardinal.

The senior leadership of the ancient aristocratic order held a press conference Thursday, its first since the top knight, Fra’ Matthew Festing, publicly battled with Pope Francis, lost and resigned.

Headlining the event was Albrecht von Boeselager, the Knights’ foreign and interior minister who was sacked by Festing.

Boeselager was restored to office thanks to Francis’ controversial intervention and is running the show pending the election of a new grand master to lead the order, which runs a vast aid operation around the world and has a unique sovereign status that enables it to function as its own country.

Boeselager said Festing had been “ill-advised” by others in taking on the Vatican. He said he welcomed Francis’ decision to name a delegate to help reform the order and said its sovereignty was never in question.

“I think this crisis has reaffirmed that the relations between the Holy See and the order are good and I am convinced they will improve further,” he said.

Still unresolved is the fate of Cardinal Raymond Burke, the Vatican’s envoy to the Knights who is widely seen as having been behind Boeselager’s ouster. Burke, a doctrinal conservative and Francis critic, has now been sidelined since Francis has decided to appoint a “special delegate” to help reform the Knights’ constitution and some aspects of their religious life.

“We will not make comments on the role of Cardinal Burke in the future. That is left to the decision of the Holy Father,” Boeselager said, adding that Francis has said his new delegate, not Burke, will serve as his sole interlocutor with the order from now on.

The order’s health minister, Dominique Prince de La Rouchefoucauld-Montbel, said the crisis had had a clear effect on donations — a drop as much as 30,000 euros for the latest fundraising drive in France alone.

“So today, our job is to show the work is still on and we have to get the (donors’) trust back,” he said.

Boeselager said Francis has written a letter assuring the order that its sovereignty is not in question, and that his delegate would intervene only on religious issues, not governance ones.