00 26/06/2010 02:28



Pope meets Grand Master
of the Knights of Malta




Left photo taken Friday, from Vatican Radio; right photo, Festing received by the Pope in June 2008 shortly after he was elected Grand Master.

(25 Jun 10 – RV) On Friday Pope Benedict XVI received the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Fra Mathew Festing, in private audience.

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, better known as the Sovereign Order of Malta, is one of the most ancient Catholic Religious Orders, founded in Jerusalem in around 1048.

The Order's mission is summed up in its motto "Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum" - defence of the faith and assistance to the suffering.

We spoke to Fra Festing about living this charism in today’s world:

Both in Jerusalem and in Rhodes and on Cyprus and on Malta itself, and indeed ever since, we have always cared for the sick. It’s partly an extension of what we did for pilgrims going to Jerusalem all those centuries ago.

Now we have branches of the order in over 46 countries. We have a huge amount going on in very nearly every country in the world.

I would divide what we do into three parts; day-to-day in developed countries, we have a constant every day presence, it maybe looking after drug addicts, or elderly people, some of it is working in hospitals.

Then in addition to that we have in a lot of ongoing projects in developing countries, which may be looking after people with leprosy, people suffering from TB, which is on the increase again, and general medical and social care.

Then the third aspect is disaster response, sometimes they are man-made, as in war, sometimes they are natural such as the recent Haiti earthquake.