‘A Vatican inquiry into the Order of Malta? Legally speaking, this makes no sense,’ says blogger

Imagine that the UK Foreign Office recommended the creation of a commission to investigate the dismissal of the Canadian Finance Minister. It would, to say the least, raise some legal questions. But that is pretty much what the Vatican’s Secretariat of State did shortly before Christmas, when it suggested the Pope appoint a team to investigate and report on the sacking of the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta, wrote blogger Ed Condon on the Catholic Herald.

There is certainly some controversy about the recent dismissal of Albrecht von Boeselager as Grand Chancellor. The man himself has apparently claimed he was ousted because he was thought to be a “liberal Catholic”; but the Grand Master of the order, Fra’ Matthew Festing, has said it concerned “an extremely grave and untenable situation [becoming] apparent” regarding von Boeslager’s previous work as Grand Hospitaller of the Order.

None of this explains why the Pope has opened an investigative commission.

The Order of Malta is, for sure, a Catholic organisation. But it is unique in that it is totally sovereign as regards its governance. The Grand Master is not appointed by the Pope, but elected by the Order’s Council Complete of State. Upon his election, the Grand Master merely informs the Pope of the fact of his election, before taking his oath of office (Constitutional Charter of the Order, art. 13 §3).

While the Order recognises the authority of the Pope as head of the Church, it is not itself a subject of the Holy See as a governing body. Instead, the Order has diplomatic relations with the Vatican, including a formal representative, the same as any other sovereign nation.

Indeed, while the Sovereign Military Order of Malta may not be military or located on the island of Malta, it is very much sovereign – it has full diplomatic relations with more than 100 countries, and the same permanent observer status at the United Nations as the Holy See.

The Order may be Catholic, but its Constitutional Charter specifically states: In other words, they don’t answer to the Vatican, full stop. In this light, the commission set up by Pope Francis to formally investigate von Boeselager’s dismissal is legally incoherent – so why did he do it?

It seems the Pope was acting on the advice of his own Secretariat of State. This is certainly the understanding of the Order, which in a statement called the creation of the commission “the result of a misunderstanding by the Secretariat of State of the Holy See”.