PopeWatch: Maltaschluss

Pope Francis is attempting to take over the Knights of Malta.  Father Z gives us the details:

The Holy See issued a press release about the SMOM (aka Knights of Malta) dust up. HERE

Traduzione in lingua inglese

Yesterday, 24 January 2017, in audience with the Holy Father, His Highness Fra’ 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 Fra’ 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 Grand Commander pending the appointment of the Papal Delegate.

[00139-EN.01] [Original text: Italian – working translation]

This leaves me perplexed.

Let’s break it down into manageable bites.

So, it seems that, the Grand Master offered his resignations to Pope Francis.
Then, Francis accepted the Grand Master’s resignation.
Now, Francis will appoint a delegate to lead the SMOM.

On the other hand, the SMOM is SOVEREIGN.   It is the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta.  They are a separate entity from the Holy See that, like Vatican City State, has sovereign nation status.

Moreover, as I have been instructed, article 6 of the constitution of the SMOM says that the Sovereign Council alone accepts or rejects the resignation of the Grand Master.

In fact, the Pope is informed only by the Council, for validity of the acceptance or rejection of the resignation.  The Pope does not accept the resignation.

In addition, the SMOM’s Constitution does not foresee a “pontifical delegate”.  There is no such critter in the life of the SMOM.  There is a pontifical delegate in canon law for religious institutes.   But, though there are aspect of the religious life to the SMOM, the SMOM is not a religious institute.  SMOM is a sovereign nation.

Is this a play by one state to take over the SMOM?

How would His Holiness react were, say, Italy to decide that it is time to absorb the Vatican City State.  “Your Holiness, we are appointing a ‘civil delegate’.”   If you erode the sovereignty of one, is it possible that you are eroding your own sovereignty?

I could use some schooling by someone who is well-versed in international law and who understands the SMOM.

Surely in the vast readership here, there is somebody who gets this.

Is it a play for the money they control?

I just read that there is involved in this mess a bank account with many millions.  HERE

Is it a play to suppress another “tradition?

Go here to read the rest.  Good thing the Pope is the most humble man in the world, as he continually tells us, or one might think he is a very proud man who will not brook the slightest opposition.