Free Republic

January 22, 2017, Wednesday — Knights of Malta and Freemasonry, #2 “One of the difficulties with the Order (of Malta) is that there is a split between those like Matthew Festing who regard the Order as a religious institution doing charitable work in the light of the teachings of the Church and others who would like to see it becoming a merely secular institution following the mores of the world at large. This is the essence of the Festing v Boeselager issue. The distribution of contraceptives was part of the issue…” — a comment several days ago on the American...

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta — known as “the Sovereign Military Order of Malta” or the “Knights of Malta” for short — is one of the Catholic Church’s oldest and most respected institutions. Founded in Jerusalem in the 11th century, the lay religious order began as a monastic community that ministered to and later protected pilgrims in the Holy Land, and continues charitable works throughout the world today. Once rulers of the island of Malta, the Order lost its foothold on its namesake in 1798, during the Siege of Malta,...

The Sovereign Council, the government of the Sovereign Order of Malta, met this afternoon in the Magistral Palace in Rome. On the agenda was the resignation from Office of Grand Master presented by Fra’ Matthew Festing, in accordance with article 16 of the Constitution of the Order of Malta. The Sovereign Council accepted his resignation from office. Conforming to the Constitution, the Pope has been notified of the resignation of Fra’ Matthew Festing, which will be communicated to the 106 Heads of State with whom the Order has diplomatic relations. In accordance with Article 17 of the Constitution, the Grand...

FULL TITLE:  De Mattei-Last Chance: Will the Malta Knights Fold or Resist?-Cardinal Parolin's Unconstitutional Letter The following letter we are publishing constitutes the latest slap in the face to the Order of Malta; it is an offence to its constitution, history and dignity. All scholars of the law agree in attributing the Order of Malta’s complete independence from the Holy See as far as its internal governance is concerned. The Holy See cannot interfere in the administrative affairs of the Order, but only intervenes in what regards the religious life of its professed Knights. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State,...

What a major coincidence! Exactly one week before (Dec. 15, 2016) the naming of the illegitimate commission (Dec. 22, 2016) created by the Pope in the Vatican Secretariat of State to "investigate" the dismissal of the Condom-Chancellor Von Boeselager, his brother had been named by the same Pope member of the Board of Superintendents of the Vatican Bank (the IOR, that carries the Vatican monies). Yes, mere coincidence! Maybe we can now call His Holiness FRANCI$CU$...

Well, well, well. Overnight more details emerged, confirming what I wrote yesterday. First, Edward Pentin, who is almost single-handedly “saving Catholicism from itself” with his reportage, as one very solid priest friend put it, has details of the secret meeting in which Antipope Bergoglio illegally coerced Grand Master Festing into “resigning”. Excerpted from RorateCaeli: The Pope summoned Fra’ Festing to the Vatican on Jan. 24 on the strict instruction not to let anyone know about the audience — a modus operandi that has been used frequently during this pontificate, the Register has learned. During the meeting, Francis asked Fra’ Festing...

“I had another vision of the great tribulation. It seems to me that a concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps.”  -- Blessed Anne Katherine Emmerich It is reported by Christine Niles at ChurchMilitant that Bishop Grech indeed threatened a priest. Every priest in Malta must defy these malefactors. These men are betrayers of Christ and the Faith....

"He's being very economical with the truth"GOZO, Malta (ChurchMilitant.com) - A priest from Malta is confirming with Church Militant that, contrary to Bp. Mario Grech's claims, he did indeed threaten a priest on the subject of Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried. Church Militant reported January 19 that the head of the Gozo diocese said he'd strip priests of their faculties if they refused to implement the new Maltese bishops' guidelines, which allow those in an objective state of adultery to approach the sacraments as long as they are "at peace with God." The report originated from Messa in...

The Holy See issued a press release about the SMOM (aka Knights of Malta) dust up. HERE Traduzione in lingua ingleseYesterday, 24 January 2017, in audience with the Holy Father, His Highness FraÂ’ Matthew Festing resigned from the office of Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.Today, 25 January, the Holy Father accepted his resignation, expressing appreciation and gratitude to FraÂ’ Festing for his loyalty and devotion to the Successor of Peter, and his willingness to serve humbly the good of the Order and the Church.The governance of the Order will be undertaken ad interim by the...

For most of us, who are not Knights of Malta, the resignation of the group’s grand master will have little immediate impact. But the unprecedented papal intervention into the affairs of that venerable body fits into a pattern that should, at this point, worry all faithful Catholics. Under Pope Francis, the Vatican is systematically silencing, eliminating, and replacing critics of the Pope’s views. During the reigns of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, “progressive” Catholics frequently complained about a crackdown on theological dissent. On the rare occasions when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a...

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...

Comes one day after Pope asks Grand Master Matthew Festing to resignROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - The former Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Malta, dismissed from the order after a condom scandal, has reportedly been reinstated. This takes place only one day after Grand Master Matthew Festing stepped down after nine years as head of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, at the request of the Holy Father. The Order announced Wednesday it would convene a Sovereign Council to formalize his resignation January 28: The Grand Magistry of the Sovereign Order of Malta announces that Grand Master Fra' Matthew Festing has...

"Principles they laid out are transferable to LGBT Catholics"VALLETTA, Malta (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pro-gay New Ways Ministry is arguing that both Malta's bishops and their new guidelines, which admit sexually active divorced people to Holy Communion, are gay-friendly. New Ways Ministry — a group that has been condemnedy by the Vatican as well as by the U.S. Bishops for its dissent on Church teaching on homosexuality — makes the case that Malta's guidelines, which are an attempt to implement the papal exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL), logically extend to gay couples. A recent article appearing on the gay group's blog January 23...

The Knights of Malta – an ancient Catholic order that dates back to the crusades – have enjoyed the privileges of a sovereign state for 900 years. Last night the Order of Malta was effectively stripped of its sovereignty in what appears to be a brutal power-grab by the Vatican.Pope Francis has demanded and received the resignation of the Grand Master, Fra’ Matthew Festing, a devoutly orthodox Englishman of (even his critics agree) unimpeachable orthodoxy and personal morality. The Vatican has now taken charge of the order while the knights search for a grand master acceptable to Francis. Canon lawyer Dr Edward Condon this morning tweeted out the reaction...

In the latest developments in the dispute between the Holy See and the Knights of Malta, the head of the 900-year-old order has written to its members emphasizing that his refusal to recognize a Holy See commission of inquiry is because he is trying to protect the order’s sovereignty and to safeguard the Church and the Knights from “any potential scandal.”

Pope Francis warned us that he wanted to “make a mess” in the church, and at the moment, he seems to be making good on that promise. In still-fresh 2017, we have seen: The pope’s close advisor, Rev. Antonio Spadaro, who edits the quasi-official Vatican journal La Civilta Cattolica, defend Pope Francis’s apparent defiance of the infallible Council of Trent on divorce and remarriage, by explaining that in theology, “2+2=5.” No one knows quite what that means, but perhaps that’s the point. The bishops of Malta have published a set of guidelines for Holy Communion based on Pope Francis’s ambiguous...

Each week I resolve to devote this column to something other than the Bergoglian pontificate, but each week a new development makes that impossible. For Pope Francis is in the process of making history – and not in a good way. Witness the recent publication of “guidelines” for “the application of Chapter Eight of Amoris Laetitia” — note well: Chapter 8 — by the bishops of once Catholic Malta. Based entirely on Amoris Laetitia (AL), the Maltese bishops now declare that the floodgates are open to Holy Communion for literally any divorced and “remarried” person who persuades himself that he...

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat recently published a widely circulated commentary on the recent fall-out from Amoris Laetitia entitled, “The End of Catholic Marriage”. In it, he argued persuasively that if Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on marital love comes to be generally interpreted and applied as liberally as it has been in the Diocese of San Diego, California, it will in effect mean the death of this sacrament as the Gospel of Christ and the Catholic Church have always presented it: a sacred covenant whose indissoluble character means that remarriage after divorce constitutes adultery – a violation of the...

If, as a result of the process of discernment, undertaken with “humility, discretion and love for the Church and her teaching, in a sincere search for God’s will and a desire to make a more perfect response to it” (AL 300), a separated or divorced person who is living in a new relationship manages, with an informed and enlightened conscience, to acknowledge and believe that he or she are at peace with God, he or she cannot be precluded from participating in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist (see AL, notes 336 and 351). I wonder what would happen...

The Archdiocese of Malta and the Diocese of Gozo have told divorced and civilly "remarried" Catholics, with valid first marriages, that if they are sexually active they can decide for themselves to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and Holy Communion, if "he or she are at peace with God". The Maltese bishops' document, Criteria for the Application of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia, states the following: 9. Throughout the discernment process, we should also examine the possibility of conjugal continence. Despite the fact that this ideal is not at all easy, there may be couples who, with the help of...