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Knights of Malta condom scandal stretches from Myanmar to the Vatican Pope Francis's authority challenged by Knights of Malta over condom row
(about 17 hours later)
The Knights of Malta, the ancient Catholic lay order, is refusing to cooperate with a Vatican investigation into the sacking of a senior official over a condom scandal — and is warning its members to toe the line if they choose to speak with investigators. Pope Francis is facing an extraordinary challenge to his authority from an ancient Catholic order that is refusing to cooperate with a Vatican investigation into the sacking of a top official over the distribution of tens of thousands of condoms.
In a statement on Tuesday the Knights called Pope Francis’s investigation legally “irrelevant” and aimed at limiting its sovereignty. It insisted that the ouster of its grand chancellor, Albrecht von Boeselager, was an act of internal governance that in no way involved religious superiors. The controversy has been simmering for weeks, but the Knights of Malta’s rejection of the investigation – an unprecedented act in recent times – has now escalated the matter.
The order told its members that if they spoke with Vatican-appointed investigators they must not contradict the decision of the order’s leadership to replace Boeselager. The conservative order said in a statement it intended to protect its sovereignty from official oversight and its members had the legal right not to cooperate with the Vatican investigation, which was approved by Pope Francis late last year, and is being led by the Vatican’s second most senior official, the secretary of state, Pietro Parolin.
Boeselager was suspended on 8 December after he refused a demand by the top Knight, Matthew Festing, to resign over revelations that the order’s charity branch distributed tens of thousands of condoms in Myanmar under his watch. The fight is increasingly being seen not just as a battle over the investigation, but as a sign of the increasing anger and disobedience by some Catholic traditionalists who are opposed to Francis’s papacy because they view him as too progressive on issues involving social doctrine.
Church teaching forbids the use of artificial contraception; Boeselager has said he didn’t know about the condom distribution programme and eventually stopped it when he learned of it. “It is not just the fact that they are defying the pope’s authority, but they are doing so using language that is disrespectful and confrontational,” said Austen Ivereigh, who has written a biography of the pope. “It is as bad as it looks.”
Boeselager has said Festing — in the presence of conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke — indicated that the Holy See wanted him to quit. But the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has since said the pope wanted no such thing. At the heart of the case lies the firing of the Maltese Order’s grand chancellor, Albrecht von Boeselager, who was suspended on 8 December after he refused to resign after allegations that thousands of condoms were distributed in Myanmar by its charitable arm under his watch.
Burke, who is a top critic of Francis but also the pontiff’s ambassador to the Knights of Malta, is a hardliner on enforcing church teaching on sexual morals. The Catholic church bans the use of contraception and Boeselager has said he stopped the practice when he learned about it.
As a result the dispute in some way reflects the broader ideological divisions in the Catholic church that have intensified during Francis’s papacy, which has emphasised the merciful side of the church over its doctrinaire side. The pope appointed a special commission to investigate the matter on 22 December, prompting an outcry from the order, which was founded in the 11th century in Jerusalem as the Knights Hospitaller. It came amid tension between Francis and the Vatican’s top diplomat to Malta, the conservative US cardinal Raymond Burke, and reflected concern in the Holy See that Boeselager may have wrongly been told that the pope had blessed his firing.
In a more narrow sense, though, the scandal within the ancient aristocratic Catholic group is about a power struggle and the possibly questionable application of promises of obedience within a religious order. Burke, who is known in particular for his views on so-called sexual morality, is one of four cardinals who challenged Francis last September when he asked the pope to submit yes or no answers to a series of questions about his call for priests to show “discernment” in their treatment of Catholics, such as divorcees, who live outside the church’s rules.
As a second-class knight Boeselager promised obedience to his superior. But Boeselager has said church law doesn’t require him to obey an act that violates the Knights’ own constitution. He maintains that Festing committed a series of legal and procedural errors in demanding his resignation that violated the order’s constitution. The papal exhortation – called Amoris laetitia (Joy of Love) – was seen by some traditional Catholics as being too lax because it suggested some divorced and remarried couples could be offered holy communion.
Festing and Burke’s allies have justified the ouster by arguing that Boeselager’s refusal to obey Festing was “disgraceful” and that the condom scandal represented an irredeemable breach. “Burke is becoming a real thorn in the side of the pope. I suspect he is driving this [firing of Boeselager] and it is part of his obsession with sexual morality, as if this is the decisive feature of what it means to be Catholic and faithful to Jesus Christ when in fact scriptures say very little on these matters,” said Robert Mickens, a veteran Rome-based Vatican journalist.
The conservative, anti-abortion Lepanto Institute, for example, compiled a detailed dossier of United Nations reports that showed the order’s Malteser International group distributed thousands of condoms through anti-HIV and family planning programs. Ivereigh said the dispute was exposing deep differences between Francis’s Vatican and the Maltese order.
Members sympathetic to Boeselager have denounced what they consider a coup and reminded Festing that he, too, took a vow of obedience: to the pope. They welcome the Vatican’s investigation but canon lawyers have cautioned that the sovereign nature of the Knights of Malta makes Vatican intervention problematic. “You are dealing here with a very profound culture clash within the Catholic church. Burke and the Knights of Malta represent in many ways everything that the church of the second Vatican council and Francis have been seeking to get away from,” he said.
The Order of Malta employs many trappings of a sovereign state. It issues its own stamps, passports and licence plates and holds diplomatic relations with 106 states, the Holy See included. The Order of Malta is known for its extreme adherence to tradition, including in the importance of respecting its own hierarchy. It employs many trappings of a sovereign state, issuing its own stamps, passports and licence plates and holding diplomatic relations with 106 states, the Vatican included.
But in its 22 December announcement of its investigation, the Vatican cited its status as a “lay religious order” that is at the service to “the faith and the Holy Father”. Its origins lie in the establishment of an 11th-century hospital in Jerusalem that cared for pilgrims of all faiths, and it now has 13,500 members and 100,000 staff and volunteers who provide healthcare in hospitals and clinics around the world.
The Order trace its history to the 11th century with the establishment of an infirmary in Jerusalem that cared for pilgrims of all faiths. It now counts 13,500 members and 100,000 staff and volunteers who provide health care in hospitals and clinics around the world.