Order of Malta: The Grand Master’s Position in the Reform Walls
While the knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta are waiting for the sovereign pontificate to stop their reform, the draft text of the new Constitution, which drastically limits the powers of the Grand Master, it is already causing controversy.
The religious press in the United States was the first to broadcast the terms of the Millennial Order reform project: whether or not the leak was orchestrated, the new draft Constitution it probably won’t pacify the knights.
Part of the project’s goal is to make radical changes to the position of Grand Master, who is currently elected for life and exercises, under the terms of the current constitution, “supreme authority” over all aspects of Order. A position that has been vacant since the death of Fra ‘Giacomo Della Torre in 2020.
More precisely, under proposals drafted by the leadership of the Order – apparently without consultation with professed knights – the Grand Master will now be elected for a term of ten years, renewable only once, and will automatically retire when he closes. -85 years.
But that’s not all. Until now, the Grand Master has had the power to reject the decisions of the sovereign council of the Order; if the Pope promulgates the text under construction, the sovereign council will have the option of overcoming the Grand Master’s veto, by obtaining a two-thirds majority vote.
In addition, the draft Constitution also requires the Grand Chancellor to countersign all the acts of the Grand Master before they can be made legally enforceable.
The most critical knights denounce a strategy aimed at further isolating the Grand Master’s function from the day-to-day running of the Order, from his international charitable actions, and from his diplomatic prerogatives. Indeed, the Order of Malta is a subject of international law, and as such, it can issue its own passports and maintain full diplomatic relations with dozens of states around the world.
However, according to opponents of this reform, in the long run, the new Constitution establishes a divide between the religious aspect of the Order embodied by the knights professed with the Grand Master in mind, and the social action, entrusted to hands. of the Grand Chancellor who, after some time, would have played the role of prime minister of an English-style monarchy.
But critics of the plan argue that the changes in the Grand Master’s office are part of a wider effort to “secularise” the Order of Malta and to keep professional knights away from its leadership. every day.
For the other members of the Order, the current proposals “offer a way to advance competence and good governance, while maintaining the religious core of our identity within the profession. Proposals for [office of] The Grand Master are completely in line with the traditions of the order. This idea that the Grand Master has autocratic power is a modern fallacy, the history of our governance has always been collegial, ”says Knight.
The ball is now in the court of Pope Francis, who must decide whether to approve or modify a project that is far from creating the conditions for pacification among the knights.