Matthew Festing was elected the
79th Grand Master of the Order of Malta earlier this year. He is the second
consecutive Englishman to lead what is the world's oldest order of chivalry, with
roots going back to the First Crusade. Despite their militaristic name and
history, the Order's responsibilities are to offer medical assistance in more
than 100 countries around the world.
During a recent
conference in Rome, Festing noted that religious organizations like the one he
leads occasionally run into problems with local laws on separation of Church and
State.
Fra Matthew Festing
Prince and Grand Master of the
Order of MaltaOne of the previous speakers today was talking about the
business of government legislation which may require hospitals to start, all of
them, providing abortions. That's a very good example of the way which we have
difficulties with, because obviously as a Catholic organization, we can't be
party to going against the teachings of the Church. An important element
of the Knight's work is that the organization and its members remain politically
neutral. That neutrality was a great benefit for them when they were providing
assistance after a recent disaster.
Fra Matthew Festing
Prince and
Grand Master of the Order of MaltaBecause we're extremely careful to be
non-aligned and non-political, one of the most interesting things we were able
to do recently was to continue work in Myanmar, in Burma, where practically no
other agencies, particularly if they were some way nationalist, or not
nationalist but rather from a particular nation, the Myanmar authorities of
course would not allow people in, whereas we in fact have been able to do quite
a lot of very good work there. But even after a disaster or a conflict
is over, that doesn't always mean that the work of the Knights of Malta in a
country is finished.
Fra Matthew Festing
Prince and Grand
Master of the Order of MaltaVery often we have an initial intervention which
is dealing literally with feeding people and providing basic medicines, and then
as time goes on we find ourselves helping in different ways. So for example,
I've just been to Latvia which for instance now wants help with probably looking
after street children, and probably also maybe with old people, because they
need to develop provisions for the elderly, so that's certainly something which
we're looking at.What's next for an organization with such a long and
illustrious history? Festing says they plan to use their centuries of experience
in aiding the poor, sick, and unfortunate to build on what they are already
doing, and to be prepared for whatever challenges come their way.
