Op-Ed: "Francis destroys the Sovereign Order of Malta" - by Roberto de Mattei

Rorate Caeli ^ | January 25, 2017 | Roberto de Mattei

[BlessedBeGod]

The Pope and the Order of Malta: a Pyrrhic Victory*?

The resignation of Fra Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the Order of Malta, imposed on him by Francis on January 23rd, risks being a Pyrrhic victory for the Pope.

Pope Bergoglio has in fact obtained what he wanted, but had to use force, violating both law and common sense. And this is destined to have serious consequences not only inside the Order of Malta, but among Catholics from all over the world, increasingly perplexed and bewildered about the way Francis is governing the Church.

The Pope knew he hadn’t any legal title to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign Order and even less so to demand the resignation of its Grand Master. He knew also the Grand Master himself would not have been able to resist the moral pressure of a request for his resignation, even if illegitimate.

By acting in such a way, Pope Bergoglio has exercised an act of dominion openly in contrast with the spirit of dialogue established as the leit motif during the Year of Mercy. However, what is graver still, is that the intervention took place “to punish” the current in the Order which is the most faithful to the immutable Magisterium of the Church and support instead, the secularist wing, which would like to transform the Knights of Malta into a humanitarian NGO, a distributer of condoms and abortificants “for good reasons”. The next designated victim appears to be the Cardinal Patron, Raymond Leo Burke, who has the dual offence of having defended Catholic Orthodoxy inside the Order and of being one of the four cardinals who criticised the theological and moral errors of the Bergoglian Exhortation, Amoris laetitia.

In his meeting with the Grand Master, Pope Francis announced his intention “to reform” the order, that is to say, the resolve to alter its religious nature, even if it is precisely in the name of Pontifical authority that he wants to start the emancipation of its religious norms and morals. This is a plan for the destruction of the Order, which, naturally, will be able to occur solely by the surrender of the Knights, who unfortunately seem to have lost their militant spirit which distinguished them on the fields of the Crusades and in the waters of Rhodes, Cyprus and Lepanto.

In acting so, however, Pope Bergoglio has lost a lot of credibility not only in the eyes of the Knights, but of an increasing number of the faithful who see the contradiction between his captivating and mellifluous manner of speaking, and his intolerant and threatening way of acting.

From the centre we pass to the periphery, which however, is more important than the centre for Pope Bergoglio. A few days before the Grand Master of the Order of Malta’s resignation, other news along the same lines shook up the Catholic world. Monsignor Rigoberto Corredor Bermùdez, Bishop of Pereira in Colombia, by decree on the 16th of January, suspended a divinis the priest Alberto Uribe Medina, because, according to the communiqué of diocese, he had “voiced publically and privately his rejection of the Holy Father Francis’ doctrinal and pastoral teaching, most of all, as regards marriage and the Eucharist.” The diocesan communiqué adds that as a result of his position, the priest “has separated himself publically from communion with the Pope and the Church.”

Don Uribe therefore, has been accused of being a heretic and schismatic for having rejected Pope Bergoglio’s pastoral indications, which, in the eyes of many cardinals, bishops and theologians have the smell of heresy [about them], precisely for the reason that they appear to be departing from the Catholic faith. Which means that a priest who refuses to administer Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried or to practicing homosexuals is suspended a divinis or excommunicated, while those who reject the Council of Trent and Familiaris consortio are promoted to bishops, and perhaps nominated cardinals, as probably Mons. Scicluna, Archbishop of Malta is expecting, [he being] one of the two Maltese Bishops who authorized Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried, living together as man and wife. The name of this small Mediterranean island seems however to have a strange tie to Pope Bergoglio’s future, less trouble free than we can possibly imagine.

Who is orthodox today and who is heretical or schismatic? This is the great debate that appears on the horizon. A de facto schism, as the German daily Die Tagespost defined it, that is, a civil war in the Church, which the war going on inside the Order of Malta is only a pale prefiguration of.

__________________

*  A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Someone who wins a Pyrrhic victory has been victorious in some way. However, the heavy toll negates any sense of achievement or profit.

[HarleyLady27]

We believe in God, Jesus and Mother Mary...we do not, however, believe in a ‘human’ on earth trying to be something he is not!!!

Keep the Faith my Catholic Sisters and Brothers, we will be led by God and His Beliefs...

[MeganC]

This pope is going to put an end to the RCC as we know it.

[Tennessee Nana]

Hasn’t this group been around since the middle ages ???

[capt. norm]

I HOPE I'm wrong but:

[lavaroise]

Pretty scary when a liberal president like Trump opposes abortion and you see the Pope becoming a tranny ISIS glorificator like Obama at the expense of kids with cancer.

[Mrs. Don-o]

800 years I believe. That would place them at 12th-13th century.

[MNDude]

I’m not familiar with this organization. Why would the pope care about it enough to do this?

[buwaya]

There are lots of health care and relief NGOs and such, in places there seems to be an absurd competition among them. The Order of Knights Hospitalier probably needs redirection. I suggest the military nature of the order be a guide.

I suggest they specialize in combat medicine, providing non-combatant medics and surgeons to military and irregular forces wherever they may be, as well as civilians caught in the middle, as neutral parties to any conflict, and sharing all the risks of war. Those that fall in this duty do so as martyrs.

They can be under both military and religious discipline, wear uniforms and assign ranks according to professional qualifications, knights and sergeants - knight and sergeant being customary medieval titles, not ranks.

[buwaya]

Yes indeed, and for hundreds of years they had a tremendous reputation as warriors. The sieges of Rhodes abd Malta and the battle of Lepanto are among their feats.
They dropped the military role a couple of centuries ago however.

[buwaya]

They have a big following among well off (often very wealthy) Catholic laymen.

[Romulus]

Since 1099.

[pbear8]

Why would the pope care about it enough to do this?

He fired the faithful and obedient Grand Master, Festing, and then invited back the disgraced Grand Chancellor who openly defied Church teaching. This Pope and his close advisers are very comfortable with sin.

[STJPII]

It was a proxy war with Cardinal Burke.

[pbear8]

That certainly is an aspect but I believe there is much more going on now that PF has shown himself to be a junta leader.

[Auberge101]

The Knights of St. John were formed around the year 1048. In the year 1113 they were recognized as a religious order by Pope Pascal. A celebration of the Order’s 900th anniversary at the Vatican was one of the very last public acts of Pope Benedict XVI before he announced his resignation from the papacy. Benedict’s message to the Knights of Malta may be found here: http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2013/february/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20130209_ordine-malta.html

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks very much for this more-accurate information.

The history is fascinating!

I think it’s damaging for Pope Francis to treat the Order of Malta in such a high-handed way. It sure gives the appearance of the deliberate humiliation of an ancient and honorable institution for no very defensible reason.

[piusv]

The Pope knew he hadn’t any legal title to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign Order and even less so to demand the resignation of its Grand Master.

Catholics continue to insist that THE POPE doesn't have the right to intervene in matters related to the Church. Of course he does (assuming he truly is the pope). One may not like the way he is governing the Church, but he has every right to govern it per Vatican I.

If anyone thus speaks, that the Roman Pontiff has only the office of inspection or direction, but not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government of the Church spread over the whole world; or, that he possesses only the more important parts, but not the whole plenitude of this supreme power; or that this power of his is not ordinary and immediate, or over the churches altogether and individually, and over the pastors and the faithful altogether and individually: let him be anathema. - First Vatican Council

[ebb tide]

By acting in such a way, Pope Bergoglio has exercised an act of dominion openly in contrast with the spirit of dialogue established as the leit motif during the Year of Mercy.

The Year of "Mercy" is over, as if it ever existed. Now continues the years of Bergoglian Wrath and Persecution. They started on 3/13/13.