Pope Francis Declares All of Festing’s Recent Acts ‘Null and Void’

[JPUSC]

National Catholic Register (EWTN):

The Pope summoned Fra’ Festing to the Vatican on Jan. 24 on the strict instruction not to let anyone know about the audience — a modus operandi that has been used frequently during this pontificate, the Register has learned. During the meeting, Francis asked Fra’ Festing to resign immediately, to which the Grand Master agreed. The Pope then ordered him to write his resignation letter on the spot, according to informed sources…

The Register has been told that the Pope then had Fra’ Festing include in his letter of resignation that the Grand Master had asked for Boeselager’s dismissal under the influence of Cardinal Raymond Burke, the patron of the Order. However, as patron, the cardinal has no governance in the Order and can only counsel the Grand Master, meaning the decision to dismiss the Grand Chancellor belonged solely to the Grand Master.

ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-francis-declares-all-of-fra-festings-recent-acts-null-and-void

 

[Corki]

Prayers needed for the Knights of Malta. They do much good work and this must be a painful and distracting time for them.

 

[mikeeh]

It is curious to observe that Boeselager has been given unprecedented powers which are neither in the statutes of the Order nor that he had before his dismissal.

In a letter Pope Francis announced that he will “nominate a special delegate” and he reiterated that all “acts of Fra’ Matthew Festing” are “null and void” – as a letter by Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, already stated.

Francis added that “Baron von Boeselager is considered a member of the Sovereign Council and from that moment on must be invited to all reunions of the Council, in a contrary case the reunion would be null.”

Boeselager thus becomes a “guarantor” of the validity of the Council, in effect putting the very person who originally defied the Grand Master’s wishes in charge.

lifesitenews.com/mobile/news/pope-told-knights-of-malta-chief-to-accuse-cardinal-burke-in-his-resignatio

 

[LiamQ]

I’m so glad that I have no idea what any of this is about. Minding one’s own business is a wonderful way to approach things.

 

[psalm90]

There must be a lot of egos involved here, in this power struggle. I don’t know what’s going on, what we apparently know must just be the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, that’s what we needed – another public scandal involving the Pope, no less. The Pope’s action is so overwhelming the situation must be very serious.

Even what did happen could have been hushed-up, but apparently somebody doesn’t want it to be that way. The term “kicking and screaming” comes to mind.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

There has just GOT to be more to all this than an arms-length agency on the other side of the world once distributing condoms. But I fear we won’t learn of it from either the Register or LifeSite.

 

[JPUSC]

There has just GOT to be more to all this than an arms-length agency on the other side of the world once distributing condoms. But I fear we won’t learn of it from either the Register or LifeSite.

It’s public knowledge

Mr Festing also sought to discredit Francis’ commission, saying there were “serious accusations of a conflict of interest” involving three of its five members. The three, he said, were linked to a Geneva-based fund in which the Knights had a financial interest and therefore couldn’t be trusted to address the spat objectively.

He didn’t elaborate. The National Catholic Register has reported that three of the commission members were involved, along with Mr von Boeselager, in a $118 million bequest to the order that was brought to the Vatican’s attention in 2014. Mr Festing said he had decided to launch an internal inquiry into the bequest.

catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/01/17/order-of-malta-leader-vatican-investigators-have-conflict-of-interest

telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/17/head-embattled-knights-ofmalta-defends-actions-says-extremely

In an extraordinary display of papal power, Pope Francis has taken control of the Knights of Malta. To non-Catholics, this move may seem like an obscure intramural skirmish, but it has sent shock waves throughout the Roman Catholic world.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is recognized as a sovereign entity under international law, so the pope’s firing of Grand Master Fra’ Matthew Festing amounts to a Vatican takeover of an autonomous state. This intrepid move sends a signal to Catholics around the world that Pope Francis isn’t afraid to play hardball with ultratraditionalists who oppose the way he is running the Catholic Church…

Because Boeselager has a close relationship with German Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, however, the German aristocrat was able to appeal his dismissal to Pope Francis. The pope decided to put together a committee to investigate whether or not Boeselager’s dismissal was warranted, but Festing refused to cooperate with any investigation. He said the investigation violated the sovereignty of the Knights of Malta. This refusal to cooperate with the Vatican prompted Pope Francis to demand Festing’s resignation on January 24.

When Festing officially resigned four days later, he became the first grand master to relinquish his position in 218 years. The last grand master to abdicate was Ferdinand Hompesch in 1799, after French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Malta…

Even though Cardinal Raymond Burke was absent for Grand Master Festing’s abdication, the entire legal drama between Boeselager and Festing is widely seen as a proxy war between Pope Francis and Cardinal Burke.

In 2014, Pope Francis removed Burke as head of the Vatican’s supreme court, the Apostolic Signatura, allegedly because of his opposition to Francis’s proposed reforms to Catholic moral teaching on divorce and remarriage. Since then Burke has been a prime mover behind a letter made public last November challenging the pope over the orthodoxy of his latest exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia. The attempt by Burke and Festing to remove Boeselager is seen as a power play to weaken Catholic reformist efforts within the Knights of Malta.

Pope Francis put an end to this power play with a display of papal power that few expected.

Over the course of his papacy, Francis has relaxed the rules on communion for Catholics in “irregular marriages,” and indicated that he is sympathetic to calls to end the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests. One German bishop even indicated that communion for non-Catholics with a Catholic spouse is a real possibility under Francis. Some in the traditionalist fringe of the Roman Catholic Church are opposing such reforms, yet such moves remove stumbling blocks on the way to ecumenical unity between Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations.

m.thetrumpet.com/articles/14509,2

 

[Ginny89]

Prayers for Cardinal Burke and all involved.

 

[pnewton]

Prayers for Cardinal Burke and all involved.

I not the irony that when he was moved several called it a demotion. Now we find Cardinal Burke in one of the most challenging jobs he has ever faced, on the front line of what is a very difficult situation. He needs our prayers and I am very pleased that God has brought him to the place he is.