The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, as it is officially known, is both a lay religious order of the Catholic Church and a subject of international law. In 2017, Pope Francis ordered reforms of both the order’s religious life and its constitution.
That reform entered a decisive stage at a Jan. 25-26 meeting in Rome, where the order, which also operates a worldwide relief agency, has its base.
The draft of the order’s constitution was due to be discussed at the Jan. 26 meeting. Leaks in advance of the meeting revealed that the new constitution would make the order a subject of the Holy See. Such a provision might jeopardize the order’s sovereignty and put at risk its bilateral relations with 112 states, as well as its permanent observer status at the United Nations.
Boeselager wrote after the talks that “we have received satisfactory assurances that there is no intention to infringe in any way upon the sovereignty and the right of self-governance of the Order of Malta and, as a result, certain articles in the proposed draft Constitution have been amended accordingly.”
A working group, which includes Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, papal delegate to the order, is overseeing the drafting of the new constitution.
Earlier in January, Boeselager said he would not join the working group and in his place, he appointed Marwan Senahoui, the leader of the order’s Lebanese association.
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