The lay religious order has distanced itself from the book, which members describe as "biased".

In his book "The Dictator Pope", Henry Sire describes Francis as an "authoritarian, manipulative and politically partisan pontiff".

He criticises Francis's involvement in a dispute between the Order of Malta and the Vatican which took place from the end of 2016 until early 2017.

The dispute erupted over the distribution of condoms but became a proxy war between the Pope and opponents of his papacy.

Sire's book describes Fra' Matthew Festing (the Order's former Grand Master) as an "out-and-out traditionalist, in doctrinal and liturgical terms".

Francis asked Matthew to resign after a public stand-off about reforms he (Francis) wanted the Order to adopt and Matthew resisted.

After Matthew resigned, the reforms began. Francis has told the order not to admit new members until reforms have been carried out.

He has declined a request to hand the Knights greater control of the organisation.

Sire said he always intended for his true identity to emerge when print editions of the book were published.

He disputed the Order's statement that his book attacks Francis.

"I need hardly point out that my object in the book was to defend the true sanctity of the papal office against an incumbent who, as many Catholics now see, falls notably short of the character that has been expected of a pope for centuries," he says.

Sire's book was released online at the end of last year and published under a pseudonym.

The print edition - which Sire says he always intended to carry his real name - will be released in a month - days before the Order gathers in Rome to elect a new leader.

Source

• The Tablet
• ABC
• Catholic Herald
• Image: LifeSite

He is the recently reinstated Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta.

"What the pope says about the world economy naturally angers them and they are very capable of making their voices heard in the Vatican," Boeselager said.

On December 6th Matthew Festing, a former Grenadier Guardsman from Northumbria in England and at that time Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, dismissed von Boeselager who was his grand chancellor.

von Boeselager had refused to step down over claims, which he, von Boeselager, denies, that he allowed the distribution of condoms in Myanmar.

Festing subsequently resigned as the head of the order Jan. 25, following a meeting with the pope the previous day.

In an interview published March 4 in the German daily Die Welt von Boeselager said it was quite obvious that there were hardliners in the Church who feared that Francis was watering down church teaching on marriage and the family.

They also rejected his stance on economic matters and the distribution of wealth.

He insisted that the Order of Malta had been drawn into a controversy that did not really concern the order itself.

"Only a few days ago Cardinal Raymond Burke once again underlined that anyone who had a high office in the Catholic Church and tolerated the distribution of condoms must step down," Boeselager noted.

"The accusation that I distributed condoms or tolerated their distribution is simply untrue."

"But quite apart from that, Burke is not only slandering me but is also indirectly attacking the Holy Father for protecting someone who distributes condoms," he charged.

The interim leader of the Knights of Malta has said that it was primarily U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke who touched off the recent dispute between the Knights of Malta and the Vatican.

In an interview with an Austrian newspaper last month Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein said it was Burke, and not the order's leader at the time, who demanded the resignation of von Boeselager.

After the original publication of this story, the cardinal issued a statement disputing Hoffmann von Rumerstein's account and said it was "not accurate."

"I had no authority to ask the Grand Chancellor to resign," Burke told the National Catholic Register. "To be frank, I am stunned by what Hoffmann von Rumerstein states."

Source

• www.economist.com
• international.la-croix.com
• www.ft.com
• ncronline.org
• Image: dw.com

And top prize for the person most responsible for being irresponsible goes to none other than the man wearing the long red train.

Yes, to Burke himself.

In an interview with the news site Breitbart.com just days before he was officially removed as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the 66-year-old American cardinal again stoked the fires.

He said if bishops, in the months leading to next year's second gathering of the Synod of Bishops on the family, were seen to move "contrary to the constant teaching and practice of the Church, there is a risk [of schism] because these are unchanging and unchangeable truths."

In the same interview, he urged Catholics to "speak up and act."

If you look a bit more closely at the cardinal's surprisingly fast advancement up the hierarchical ladder, as well as the groups with which he's been most associated, you'll understand which Catholics he's talking about.

Raymond Burke studied theology in Rome, where Pope Paul VI ordained him to the priesthood in 1975.

He returned to his home diocese of La Crosse, Wis., and did a couple of years of chancery work and assisting at the cathedral before returning to Rome to get a doctorate in canon law.

He then did another few years of chancery work and teaching in the diocese before being called to the Vatican in 1989 to work in the Apostolic Signatura.

Five years later, at only 46 years old, Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of La Crosse.

In the nine years as head of his home diocese, his credentials as a doctrinal conservative and his strange penchant for the pre-Second Vatican Council Mass became more and more pronounced.

He reopened the diocese's long-shuttered high school seminary, set about building a retrograde shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and helped establish a weird neo-Tridentine religious community that had a special indult to use the Old Rite.

This was a full decade before Pope Benedict XVI would eventually grant unfettered use of the Tridentine Mass throughout the church. Continue reading

• Robert Mickens in National Catholic Reporter

Robert Mickens is editor-in-chief of Global Pulse.

Ernst von Freyberg is currently chairman of the Blohm+Voss Group, a Hamburg-based company that builds and repairs yachts and ocean liners.

The multilingual von Freyberg is active in the Knights of Malta, a lay Catholic religious order and a worldwide humanitarian network offering free medical care and other services. He is also a co-leader of an association that organises pilgrimages to Lourdes.

At the announcement of the appointment, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was caught off-guard when a reported pointed out that the Blohm+Voss Group is part of a consortium that is currently building frigates for the German navy.

The firm's website also lists frigates, destroyers and patrol boats designed in the past for the navies of Nigeria, Argentina, Portugal and Germany.

Later a Vatican statement said von Freyberg had nothing to do with the military part of Blohm+Voss.

Von Freyberg replaces Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was forced out as president of the bank — formally known as the Institute for Religious Works — last May for incompetence.

He assumes the leadership of an institution that has been the focus of considerable controversy in recent months. European banking authorities have charged that the bank does not maintain adequate safeguards to prevent money-laundering.

In July, a European anti-money laundering committee said it failed to meet all its standards on fighting money-laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes.

The report by Moneyval, a monitoring committee of the 47-nation Council of Europe, found the Vatican passed nine of 16 "key and core" aspects of its financial dealings.

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Catholic News Service

National Catholic Reporter