Pope celebrates his four months of DUBIA silence with this:
The head of the Knights of Malta has resigned after entering into a public spat with Pope Francis over the ouster of a top official involved in a condom scandal, a spokeswoman for the ancient lay Catholic order says. Matthew Festing met with the pope on Tuesday and offered his resignation, Knights of Malta spokeswoman Marianna Balfour said. Festing had refused to cooperate with a papal commission investigating his ouster of the grand chancellor, Albrecht von Boeselager, over revelations that the order's charity branch had distributed condoms under his watch. Festing had cited the Knights' status as a sovereign entity in refusing to cooperate. Last week, the Holy See said in a sharply worded statement that it planned to take action to resolve the dispute, which had set the stage for one sovereign entity intervening in the internal affairs of another. The remarkable showdown is the latest example of Francis clashing with more conservative elements in the Catholic Church, especially those for whom sexual ethics and doctrinal orthodoxy are paramount. In a January 17 statement, the Vatican called the issue a "crisis of the central direction" of the Knights of Malta. Festing suspended Boeselager on December 8 over revelations that the Knights' charity branch had distributed thousands of condoms to poor people in Myanmar under his watch. Source
Comments
Post a Comment