Pope Francis named a top Vatican archbishop as his special delegate to the troubled Knights of Malta and gave him "all necessary powers" to help the religious order reform its constitutions and elect a new leader, a clear sign he intends to continue exerting control over the sovereign organization in the near term. In a letter Saturday, Francis named the No. 2 official of the secretariat of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, as his delegate, said his mandate would last until the election of the new grand master and said Becciu would serve as his "exclusive spokesman" with the order. The letter confirmed the sidelining of Cardinal Raymond Burke, the conservative American and Francis critic who until now been the official papal envoy to the ancient aristocratic order, which counts generations of Europe's Catholic nobility as its members and runs a vast humanitarian organization around the world. That Burke has been trumped by a mere archbishop would seem to emphasize his marginalization. Burke was instrumental in the government crisis that has convulsed the Knights for the past three months, resulting in the resignation of the order's grand master, Fra' Matthew Festing, after he did public battle with Francis over a condom scandal and lost. With Burke's support, Festing had sacked the Knights' grand chancellor, Albert von Boeselager, under the pretext that Boeselager had been responsible when the Knights' charity branch distributed condoms in Myanmar. Boeselager has said he stopped the programs when he learned of them. Francis intervened after Boeselager said he had been told during a Dec. 6 meeting with Burke and Festing that the pope had wanted him to resign over the scandal. The Vatican said the pope wanted no such thing. Francis effectively took over the order, asking Festing to resign, restoring Boeselager to his position, declaring all the Knights' sovereign decisions concerning the matter "null and void" and appointing a delegate to help run the order. At a press conference this week, Boeselager insisted the order's sovereignty was never in question, but he acknowledged the Vatican's strident public statements had led to so many misunderstandings that he planned to convene ambassadors accredited to the order to explain the situation. — AP
