Order of Malta Grand Master resigns
The grand master of the Knights of Malta has resigned after Pope Francis declared all actions undertaken by him since the December dismissal of Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager “null and void”.
According to the National Catholic Register, Fra’ Matthew Festing was summoned to an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on January 24 with orders not to disclose the meeting. He was then required to resign and to submit a letter to that effect while still in the Vatican.
Announcing the resignation subsequently, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in a statement that Fra’ Festing will be replaced by an interim leader, the order’s Grand Commander Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein, while the Pontiff works to nominate a Papal Delegate to fully investigate matters of concern within the Order of Malta.
Cardinal Parolin added: “The Holy Father, on the basis of evidence that has emerged from information he has gathered, has determined that all actions taken by the Grand Master after December 6, 2016, are null and void. The same is true for those of the Sovereign Council, such as the election of the Grand Chancellor ad interim.”
Commission
The resignation of Fra’ Matthew Festing came after weeks of defiance on the part of the Order of Malta against the Pope’s wishes to appoint a commission to investigate the circumstances behind the dismissal of von Boeselager, amid allegations that he had backed the distribution of contraceptives by at least one medical programme in the developing world backed by the order. Von Boeselager has protested his innocence in this.
‘Doctor of the Popes’ dies
Dr Renato Buzzonetti, personal physician to four Popes and the first to treat the injured St John Paul II after the assassination attempt in 1981, has died at the age of 92.
Born in 1924, Dr Buzzonetti entered papal service in 1974 and tended to Blessed Pope Paul VI, and was later present at the passing of that Pontiff in 1978. He served Popes John Paul I, Benedict XVI and St John Paul II.
In addition to the dramatic and near-fatal events of May 13, 1981, Dr Buzzonetti was first to tend to St John Paul II on May 12, 1982 in Fatima when the late Pope received stab wounds from Spanish priest Juan Fernandez Krohn. He later diagnosed St John Paul’s Parkinson disease and tended to that condition.
Upon retiring during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, Dr Buzzonetti received an honorific title, pontifical archiater emeritus, meaning physician emeritus of the Pope’.
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray to leave Rome
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the vice dean of the College of Cardinals, has announced he is to leave Rome and live in retirement in Bayonne in his native France.
The cardinal, who is 94, became vice dean of the College in 2005 after the election of Pope Benedict XVI.
Formerly Archbishop of Marseilles, Cardinal Etchegaray was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1979 by St John Paul II. Since then, he served as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. Following his resignation at the age of 75 in 1998, he continued to undertake special diplomatic missions for the Holy See.