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TIMELINE – KNIGHTS OF MALTA /// BOESELAGER :

Letter #5, 2017: Knights of Malta and Freemasonry, #2

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November 10, 2016 — Cardinal Burke meets with Pope Francis. Burke tells Francis of his concerns about some non-Catholic, immoral activities being carried out under the sponsorship of the Knights of Malta. The Pope shares his deep concern over this news, and allegedly urges Burke to do all he can to end such activities. Edward Pentin will later report that the Pope tells Burke to “clean out” all “Freemasons” in the Order of Malta.
December 1, 2016 — Pope Francis writes a follow-up letter to Cardinal Burke, encouraging him, as discussed, to promote the Catholic faith in the life of the Order of Malta. The contents of this letter have not been made public, but Cardinal Parolin will refer to the contents in his letter of December 12 and 21.
December 6, 2016 — The moment of decision. At a meeting of the top leadership of the Knights of Malta, Boeselager is asked to submit his resignation. The reason? That he has not prevented the distribution of various contraceptive devices and pills over a number of years. But Boeselager refuses. The Order leadership then forcibly removes him from his post, voting him out. Boeselager is not happy with this outcome.
December 6-11, 2016 — Boeselager contacts Vatican officials, tells them what has happened, and, it appears, the Vatican promises him support.
December 12, 2016 — Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, reportedly a personal friend of Boeselager, writes a letter to Festing, saying that Pope Francis, in his November 10 meeting with Burke, had not instructed Burke to counsel or embark on a course of action which would lead to the dismissal of any of the Order’s leaders.
December 13, 2016 — The Order of Malta issues a statement on the case. Here is that text:
The Current Situation between the Order of Malta and Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager
“Because, unfortunately, some details of the events of last week are being circulated and discussed in an unbalanced manner, the Grand Master of the Order, HMEH Fra’ Matthew Festing, would like to communicate the following. On Tuesday, December 6, an extremely grave and untenable situation became apparent concerning Albrecht von Boeselager’s position as Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta, and the Grand Master called Boeselager for a meeting in presence of the Grand Commander, Fra’ Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein and Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke as the Holy Father’s representative to the Order of Malta.
“In the meeting the Grand Master said that the situation called for Albrecht von Boeselager to resign as Grand Chancellor, which is especially regretful because of his service to the Order for so many years.
“After Boeselager refused this, eventually the Grand Master had no choice but to order him, under the Promise of Obedience, in presence of the Grand Commander and the Cardinal Patronus, to resign. Boeselager refused again.
“Thus, the Grand Commander, with the backing of the Grand Master and the Sovereign Council and most members of the Order around the world, initiated a disciplinary procedure after which a member can be suspended from membership in the Order, and thus all Offices within the Order.
“The reason for his removal as Grand Chancellor was due to severe problems which occurred during Boeselager’s tenure as Grand Hospitaller of the Order of Malta, and his subsequent concealment of these problems from the Grand Magistry, as proved in a report commissioned by the Grand Master last year.
“It has to be noted that, for any member of the Order, to refuse a command of the Grand Master – regardless of the reasons behind it – is disgraceful. However, for a member in Obedience to refuse an order under the Promise betrays a disregard for the Order’s spirituality and laws, his Religious Superior and Sovereign, and for the Holy Father’s representative to the Order who was supporting the Grand Master in his decision.
“The Grand Master asks all Members of the Order to remain in the ardent desire that the Order stays united. Although some members of the Order have been publicly protesting, these claims are erroneous and also illustrate a similar disrespect for the Grand Master.
“The Sovereign Council of the Order of Malta will appoint the new Grand Chancellor in the next few days.”
December 21, 2016 — Parolin sends a second letter to the Knights, repeating the same essential points. He says: “As I already said in my prior letter of December 12: regarding the use and distribution of methods and means contrary to the moral law, His Holiness asked for a dialogue on how these eventual problems could be faced and dealt with. But he never said to oust someone!”
December 22, 2016 — Cardinal Parolin establishes a commission of five members to investigate the Boeselager case. The five members of the new commission are: Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the former permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N. in Geneva; Jesuit Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University; and laypeople Jacques de Liedekerke, a lawyer, Marc Odendall, an investment banker, and Marwan Sehnaoui, the head of the Knights of Malta in Lebanon. They are to report back the results of their investigation by January 31, 2017.
January 5, 2017 — The Tablet of London reveals the existence of the two letters from the Secretary of State to the Knights of Malta of December 12 and 21.
January 10, 2017 — The Knights of Malta issue a statement saying that, because they are a sovereign state under international law, they will not cooperate with the Vatican investigation, which is characterized as an interference in an internal Knights of Malta matter. Here is the text of that statement:
Statement of the Grand Magistry, January 10, 2017
The Grand Magistry of the Sovereign Order of Malta, in response to the activities being carried out by a Group appointed by the Secretary of State of the Vatican, considers it appropriate to reiterate that the replacement of the former Grand Chancellor was an internal act of the government of the Order.
Thus, considering the legal irrelevance of this Group and of its findings relating to the legal structure of the Order of Malta, the Order has decided that it should not cooperate with it. This is to protect its sovereignty against initiatives which claim to be directed at objectively (and, therefore – quite apart from its intentions – reveals it to be legally irrelevant) questioning or even limiting said Sovereignty.
Article 4 paragraph 6 of the Constitutional Charter is clear when it states that “the religious nature of the Order does not prejudice the exercise of sovereign prerogatives pertaining to the Order in so far as it is recognized by States as a subject of international law” and Article 4 paragraph 5 reiterates that “the Order has diplomatic representation to the Holy See, according to the norms of international law.”
The confirmation of such status under international law is also attested to in the Annuario Pontificio of the Holy See, where the Order is mentioned only once and not amongst the religious orders, but rather amongst the States with Embassies accredited the Holy See.
The different ranks of the members of the Order belonging to different classes should be noted, and therefore also the hierarchical relationships that exist between those members and their superiors. The Second Class, to which the former Grand Chancellor belonged, is for members of the Order ‘in Obedience’ who make the Promise according to Article 9 paragraph 2 of the Constitutional Charter (see also Article 8 paragraph 1 b) of the Constitutional Charter). This Promise has nothing to do with the Vow of Obedience taken by the Knights of Justice, who belong to the First Class. Therefore the Knights of Justice “are religious in all respects” (Article 9 paragraph 1 of the Constitutional Charter), whilst they are not ‘Knights in Obedience’.
In addition, according to Article 4 paragraph 2, the Constitutional Charter states that members of the Second Class who have taken the Promise of Obedience are only subordinate to their superiors within the Order.
In the light of these fundamental legal regulations, it is clear that, in strictly legal terms, a refusal to a command ‘in Obedience’ does not justify in any way the involvement of ‘religious superiors’, all the more so as they do not all belong to the Order.
Such involvement, in addition to being legally impossible, is also superfluous in terms of protecting members of the Order: from the time that the members of the Second and Third Class who wish to appeal against disciplinary measures they consider too harsh, can dispute these before the Magistral Courts, as provided for by Article 129 of the Constitutional Code.
Failure to cooperate with the aforementioned Group has therefore strictly legal grounds, thus it is not and cannot in any way be considered as a lack of respect towards the Group, nor towards His Eminence Secretary of State.
The position of the Grand Magistry is that the depositions that individual members consider that they could make to the Group cannot, in their terms and judgments, be in contradiction, directly or indirectly, with the decision of the Grand Master and the Sovereign Council concerning the replacement of the Grand Chancellor.
January 14, 2017 — In a statement, Grand Master Fra’ Matthew Festing seeks to offer reassurance that the legality of the process used to remove former Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager has been “clarified by numerous sources,” in particular the avvocato di stato (attorney general).
January 16, 2017 — The Tablet of London reports the existence of a letter by Grand Master Festing which alleges that at least three members of the papal investigation commission may have “conflicts of interest” because of connections to “a fund in Geneva.” The title of the article by Christopher Lamb: “Grand Master Festing says Order won’t cooperate with Holy See until own inquiry is complete, in letter seen by The Tablet; Order of Malta chief withdraws cooperation after accusing Vatican’s inquiry of links with fund in Geneva.” Festing stresses “there is nothing to suggest anything untoward,” but he claims that evidence presented to him warrants his action to set up his own inquiry. “The makeup of the group of people has raised serious questions within the Grand Magistry. There are serious accusations of a conflict of interest for at least three of the members who have been proved to be linked to a fund in Geneva,” the Grand Master writes in a letter sent to the order’s leadership. Festing does not name the fund in question, although Odendall is listed as treasurer of the Swiss-based Caritas in Veritate Foundation which has the Holy See’s representative to the UN in Geneva as its president. The foundation’s aims are to promote the Church’s position in public debate and international negotiations. There is no suggestion that Odendall’s involvement in this fund causes a conflict of interest.
January 17, 2017 — The Vatican confirms its trust in the papal commission investigating the forced resignation of the Order of Malta’s former grand chancellor following a letter by the order’s grand master to discredit the group. In a statement today, the Vatican says it “reaffirms its confidence” in the five-member group established by Pope Francis “to inform him about the present crisis of the central direction of the order.” The Vatican also rejects “any attempt to discredit these members of the group,” led by Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, former Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva.
January 24, 2017 — The Pope summons Festing to the Vatican and asks him to resign as the head of the Knights of Malta. Festing agrees to resign.
January 25, 2017 — Festing’s resignation is publicly announced by the Order of Malta and by the Holy See. A meeting of the Order’s governing board is called for January 28 to accept the Grand Master’s resignation. And the Vatican announces that the Pope will soon name a “Delegate” to run the Order.