"Pope
prevails as Knights of Malta chief resigns"
Esta notícia e o desenrolar
deste “casus” à volta da Ordem Soberana e Militar de Malta
talvez tenham passado desapercebidos em Portugal, mas o seu desfecho
é importante para o Futuro da Igreja e da sua interpretação da
mensagem Cristã …
De qualquer maneira, tudo
indica que a Ordem se tornou menos “Soberana” perante a vontade
modernizadora do Papa.
A “heráldica” é algo que
é invisivel e que está escrito na nossa alma e no nosso percurso
ético de vida … Ora os “cavaleiros” são escolhidos pelo
número de quartos nos brazões de família ( ?! )
OVOODOCORVO
Vatican
condom row: pope prevails as Knights of Malta chief resigns
Catholic
order’s British leader, Grand Master Matthew Festing, had been in
conflict with liberalising Pope Francis after sacking key official
over aid project
Reuters in Vatican
City
Wednesday 25 January
2017 02.29 GMT
The head of Catholic
order the Knights of Malta has resigned over a bitter dispute with
the Vatican about free condoms that become a test of the authority of
liberalising Pope Francis.
The Rome-based
chivalric and charity institution said Grand Master Matthew Festing,
67, resigned after Pope Francis asked him to step down at a meeting
on Tuesday. Grand masters of the institution, which was founded in
the 11th century, usually keep their positions for life.
“The pope asked
him to resign and he agreed,” the spokesperson said, adding that
the next step was a formality in which the group’s Sovereign
Council would have to sign off on the highly unusual resignation.
Festing and the
Vatican have been locked in a bitter dispute since one of the order’s
top knights, Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, was
sacked in December after the charity distributed condoms as part of a
medical project for the poor.
Von Boeselager
appealed to the pope, who appointed a five-member commission to look
into the unusual circumstances of the sacking. Festing refused to
cooperate and called the commission illegitimate.
Festing’s
resignation was the latest twist in a battle of wills between the
heads of two of the world’s oldest institutions.
Festing, a Briton,
had denounced the papal commission as intervention in the order’s
sovereign affairs, accused members having a conflict of interest and
defiantly set up his own internal commission.
The Vatican, in
turn, rejected what it said was an attempt to discredit members of
the commission and ordered the leaders of the institution to
cooperate with the inquiry. The papal commission was due to deliver
its findings to the pope at the end of January.
The all-male top
leaders of the Knights of Malta are not clerics but take vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience to the pope. The institution has
13,500 members, 25,000 employees and 80,000 volunteers worldwide.
The order – formed
in the 11th century to provide protection and medical care for
pilgrims to the Holy Land – has the trappings of a sovereign
entity. It maintains diplomatic relations with more than 100 states
and the EU, and permanent observer status at the United Nations.
When Festing fired
Von Boeselager he accused the German of hiding the fact that he
allowed the use of condoms when he ran Malteser International, the
order’s humanitarian aid agency.
Von Boeselager and
his supporters said the condom issue was an excuse by Festing and
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke – an arch-conservative who has accused
the pope of being too liberal – to increase their power.
The church does not
allow the use of condoms as a means of birth control and says
abstinence and monogamy in heterosexual marriage is the best way to
stop the spread of AIDS.
Von Boeselager said
he closed two projects in the developing world when he discovered
condoms were being distributed but kept a third running for a while
because closing it would have abruptly ended all basic medical
services to poor people.
Francis has said he
wants the 1.2 billion-member church to avoid so-called “culture
wars” over moral teachings and show mercy to those who cannot live
by all its rules, especially the poor. (Reporting by Philip Pullella,
editing by G Crosse and Cynthia Oserman)
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