The Vatican said on Wednesday that it was taking over the embattled Knights of Malta lay Catholic order in an extraordinary display of papal power after the Knights’ grand master publicly defied Pope Francis in a bitter dispute over condoms. The move marks the intervention of one sovereign state — the Holy See — into the governance of another, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, an ancient aristocratic order that runs a vast charity operation around the globe.
The Vatican said Matthew Festing (67) offered to resign as grand master on Tuesday during an audience with the Pope, and that Francis had accepted it on Wednesday.
The statement said the order’s governance would shift temporarily to the order’s No. 2 “pending the appointment of the papal delegate”.
Mr. Festing had refused to cooperate with a papal commission investigating his ouster of the order’s grand chancellor, Albrecht von Boeselager, over revelations that the Knights’ charity branch had distributed condoms under his watch.
The spat unfolded against the backdrop of Francis’ increasing clashes with more conservative elements in the church, especially those for whom sexual ethics and doctrinal orthodoxy are paramount.
Church teaching forbids artificial contraception. Mr. Boeselager has said he stopped the programmes when he learned of them. The order’s leadership has said the scandal was grave, that Mr. Boeselager had hidden the revelations of the programs, and called it “disgraceful” that he had refused an order to obey Mr. Festing and resign.
