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Subject: [ctrl] KNIGHTS of MALTA Secretly Elect New GRAND MASTER
Knights of Malta secretly elect Englishman as new grand master
March 17, 2008 · 5 Comments
Frà Matthew Festing, 58, an Englishman, becomes the 79th Grand Master of the
Sovereign Military Hospitaller
Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.
Until his final breath, Matthew Festing will carry the title “His Most Eminent
Highness”.
Catholic News Service | Mar 11, 2008
Leading Knights said the order is often depicted as secret society of the
wealthy elite.
By John Thavis
ROME (CNS) — In a secret and swift election, the Knights of Malta elected an
Englishman as their 79th grand master.
Matthew Festing, who had been the Knights’ grand prior of England, was chosen
March 11 to replace Andrew W.N. Bertie, who died in February.
Festing, 59, will head the world’s oldest chivalric order, founded in the 11th
century. He is only the second Englishman to hold the post of grand master;
Bertie was the first.
Known officially as the
Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes
and of Malta, the organization was established to care for pilgrims during the
Crusades. It lives on today as a lay Catholic religious order and a worldwide
humanitarian network.
The order is also a sovereign state, holding observer status at the United
Nations and maintaining diplomatic relations with 100 countries.
Festing, an expert in art and history, joined the Knights in 1977 and in 1991
became a “professed” knight, taking religious vows. He is a descendent of
Blessed Adrian Fortescue, a Knight of Malta who was martyred in the 16th
century.
As head of the English priory, Festing organized humanitarian assistance
missions to Lebanon and Kosovo and led a delegation on the order’s annual
pilgrimage with the sick to Lourdes.
In a statement issued after his election, the new grand master said he wanted
to continue the work of his predecessor, who
was credited with expanding the order’s humanitarian services and its
diplomatic connections.
Pope Benedict XVI was informed of Festing’s election before it was announced to
the world.
The election of a grand master is a major event in Rome. Fifty electors,
representing the 12,500 male and female members of the order, filed into the
Knights’ villa on Rome’s Aventine Hill, wearing their distinctive red robes
decorated with the Maltese cross.
The election, which began with a Mass, had similarities to a papal conclave.
The grand master had to be chosen from among the order’s approximately 50
professed Knights.
The voting was done by a secret ballot, after nonvoters were asked to leave. No
politicking was allowed, and the new grand master had to receive a “majority
plus one” of the total votes — at least 27 out of 50.
At a press conference a few days before the election, leading Knights said the
order is often wrongly
depicted as an elite, wealthy secret society.
“In many ways, we are misunderstood,” said Winfried Henckel von Donnersmark, a
member of the order’s sovereign council. In part, that’s because of the unusual
nature of the organization, he said.
The Knights are a religious order, yet the vast majority of members are lay, he
pointed out. It is a Catholic organization, but its humanitarian operations are
open to people of all faiths. And while it does have some property and
patrimony, it has to continually raise funds to support its annual $1 billion
in charity works around the world, he said.
Membership in the order is by invitation. Knights and Dames are practicing
Catholics and devote part of their time to doing works of mercy.
The professed members are all male, but women form an increasingly important
part of the order, officials said.
According to Albrecht von Boeselager, one of the order’s chief officials, the
Knights have about 80,000 local volunteers working in 120 countries throughout
the world. The organization is welcomed by so many governments — even by the
military regime in Myanmar, for example — because it adheres to strict
neutrality on political issues, he said.
“We don’t consider ourselves a human rights organization. If making accusations
on human rights issues would prevent us from assisting the needy, we would
prefer to be silent,” von Boeselager said.
In the Middle East and Asia, however, the Knights’ neutrality has recently been
called into question by extremist propaganda, he said.
“We have been accused of being part of a ‘new crusade,’ and even of having
mercenaries fighting in Iraq. That is totally untrue, and it endangers our
personnel in Muslim countries,” he said.
Noreen Falcone, president of the Knights’ U.S. federal association, said the
order’s organizational structure gives it the ability to move quickly
into disaster areas. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, for
example, the order went to work immediately.
“We’re still there, building homes and helping to give people back their
self-respect,” she said.
. . .
Related
British art historian elected grand master of Knights of Malta
AP | Mar 12, 2008
ROME (AP) - The Knights of Malta said Tuesday they have elected a British art
historian as the new grand master of the lay Roman Catholic order.
Fra Matthew Festing replaces the late Fra Andrew Bertie as head of the
900-year-old charitable order.
The Knights of Malta chose the 59-year-old Festing as their 79th grand master
during
a meeting Tuesday in Rome. Festing was sworn in shortly after the
election, the order said.
Festing joined the Order of Malta in 1977. He has led humanitarian missions in
Lebanon and Kosovo as the Grand Prior of England, a senior position he held for
the past 15 years, the statement said.
Officially known as the Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, the order was founded with a pilgrims’
hospice in 11th century Jerusalem and has the status of an independent state.
The order has 12,500 members and operates in 120 countries, providing medical
and social services, particularly in war zones and impoverished areas. It
maintains diplomatic relations with 100 nations.
. . .
Frà Matthew Festing Elected Grand Master
Frà Matthew Festing, 58, an Englishman, becomes the 79th Grand Master of the
Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of
Malta, elected this morning by the
Council Complete of State (the Order’s electoral body). In accepting the role,
the new Grand Master swore his Oath before the Cardinal Patronus of the Order,
Cardinal Pio Laghi, and the electoral body. He succeeds Frà Andrew Bertie, 78th
Grand Master (1988-2008), who died on 7 February.
The new Grand Master affirms his resolve to continue the great work carried out
by his predecessor. Frà Matthew comes with a wide range of experience in Order
affairs. He has been the Grand Prior of England since the Priory’s
re-establishment in 1993, restored after an abeyance of 450 years. In this
capacity, he has led missions of humanitarian aid to Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia
after the recent disturbances in those countries, and with a large delegation
from Britain he attends the Order’s annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with
handicapped pilgrims.
Educated at Ampleforth and St. John’s College Cambridge, where he read history,
Frà Matthew, an art expert, has for most of
his professional life worked at an international art auction house. As a child
he lived in Egypt and Singapore, where his father, Field Marshal Sir Francis
Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, had earlier postings. His mother
was a member of the recusant Riddells of Swinburne Castle who suffered for
their faith in penal times. He is also descended from Sir Adrian Fortescue, a
knight of Malta, who was martyred in 1539.
Frà Matthew served in the Grenadier Guards and holds the rank of colonel in the
Territorial Army. He was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British
Empire) by the Queen and has served as her Deputy Lieutenant in the county of
Northumberland for a number of years.
In 1977 Frà Matthew became a member of the Order of Malta, taking solemn
religious vows in 1991.
http://www.orderofmalta.org.uk/news.htm
. . .
Sotheby’s Auctioneer Elected Grand Master of the Knights of Malta
Until his final breath, Matthew Festing will carry the title “His Most Eminent
Highness.”
ARTINFO | Mar 13, 2008
ROME—Sotheby’s auctioneer Matthew Festing has been elected as the 79th Grand
Master of the Knights of Malta, a Roman Catholic chivalric order established in
the 11th century during the Crusades, the Times (London) reports. The
secret-ballot election took place March 11 at a papal-style conclave in the
order’s headquarters on the Aventine Hill in Rome.
The Knights, who are also known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of
St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, carry out charitable and medical
operations in 120 countries. The organization has recently been
attempting to dispel rumors that it is rich and secretive (see the Da Vinci
Code), and the election of Festing, who is seen as a reformer, is a sign that
they plan to be more open and to better publicize their charitable acts.
Festing, a descendant of Sir Adrian Fortescue, a Knight of Malta martyred in
1539, was admitted to the order in 1977. In 1988 he became a Knight of Justice,
in 1991 he took perpetual vows, and he has recently served as Grand Prior of
the British Association, Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Malta
(BASMOM). Festing’s father was also a member of the order, and his brother
Andrew Festing is president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and a
favorite of the British royal family.
Grand Masters, like Popes, are elected for life. Until his final breath,
Matthew Festing will carry the title “His Most Eminent Highness.”
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