According to participants, the Holy Father began and ended the audience by stating that he had taken to himself the final decision-making of the critical issues regarding the Order’s constitutional reform.
Newsroom (01/03/2022 Gaudium Press) On Feb. 26, 2022, Pope Francis received in audience the Lieutenant Grand Master Fra’ Marco Luzzago, Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi and his working group and a delegation of the Order of Malta. The meeting, which focussed on the reform of the Order of Malta, took place at the Pope’s private library in the apostolic palace.
In a statement following the Feb. 26 encounter, Tomasi said that the participants had presented to Pope Francis how the proposed reform “maintains and better frames the order in its characteristic of a religious lay order and allows for the continuation of its charitable, diplomatic, and humanitarian action.”
Tomasi said that Pope Francis had granted the Order of Malta another audience, after which the Pope will decide on the projects they have presented to him.
In a letter sent to the Order of Malta’s leaders worldwide, Marwan Sehnaoui, Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Constitutional reform process, expressed his gratitude to ‘His Holiness for having dedicated two hours of his valuable time to the Order of Malta.’
‘The Holy Father began and ended the audience,’ Marwan Sehnaoui’s letter continues, ‘by stating that he had taken to himself the final decision-making of the critical issues regarding the Order’s constitutional reform. Pope Francis listened carefully to the presentations and interventions of both sides. After the exchange of views, the Holy Father said that there is no urgency in making a final decision.”
(Via CNA and Order of Malta )
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh
