During Fra 'Matthew Festing's tenure as Grand Master of the Maltese from 2008 to 2017, the Order went through its worst crisis in decades.

There is much to suggest that Festing did not trigger the leadership and constitutional crisis of the “Sovereign Knights and Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta” out of his own will and personal conviction, but that he became a tool in a power struggle in the world church became.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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This power struggle had little to do with the Order itself and more to do with the resistance of conservative Catholics against Pope Francis.

The American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke can be regarded as the informal leader of this resistance faction.

Of course, Francis himself appointed him cardinal patron of the Order of Malta in 2014, thereby giving Burke an institutional instrument of considerable historical weight.

Conflict over condom distribution

The dispute in the order reached its climax with the dismissal of Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager by Grand Master Festing in early December 2016.

Primarily it was about the distribution of condoms in the context of aid missions by Malter International, the humanitarian arm of the order that is active in countless countries and conflict regions and is also a sovereign subject of international law.

Boeselager, leader of the "liberal" faction in the order, opposed a dismissal and turned to Pope Francis.

In his capacity as the absolute monarch of the universal church and thus also as the spiritual head of all Catholic orders, he reversed Boeselager's dismissal and, in turn, suggested that Festing resign.

As an obedient servant of the Pope, Festing resigned at the end of January 2017, which horrified his followers and backers in the order: They took the view that the Pope, as head of state of the Papal State, did not have the right to drive the head of state of the order, which is sovereign under international law, out of office.

Festing largely withdrew from work for the order after his dismissal by the Pope.

In the meantime, the “fraction” around Boeselager pushed ahead with its reform efforts, so that, for example, not only nobles with an ancient line of tradition can be elected to leading positions in the order.

Festing's successor, the Italian Giacomo dalle Torre di Sanguinetto, died after barely two years in office in April 2020. Without being able to decisively advance the reform process in the Order, Sanguinetto brought the Maltese further on the line of Pope Francis when he in mid-2019 The celebration of mass according to the ancient Roman rite was forbidden and services in the order were only allowed according to the ordinary rite, which had been established as part of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council in 1962.

Sanguinetto's compatriot Marco Luzzago was elected as the interim successor to Sanguinetto in the spring of 2020, who will lead the fortunes of the Sovereign Order until a new Grand Master is elected as acting governor.

A descendant of Sir Adrian Fortescue

Festing came from Northumberland in northern England and had been a member of the Order of Malta since 1977.

In 1991 he made his perpetual vows as a professed knight.

In doing so he committed himself to poverty, marital chastity and obedience to the Pope.

Festing was a descendant of the blessed Sir Adrian Fortescue, a fighting Knight of Malta who was executed in the course of the split in the church under King Henry VIII in 1539 and thus died a martyr's death.

Matthew Festing died on Friday at the age of 71 in the Maltese capital Valletta, according to the Order.

He was reported to have fallen ill after celebrating a religious ceremony in Malta and was admitted to a hospital in Valletta, where his condition continued to deteriorate.