National Catholic Register, Matthew Bunson: Soon after his resignation announcement in Feb. 2013, then-Pope Benedict XVI met with the members of the venerable and respected chivalric Sovereign Military Order of Malta and urged them to remain faithful to their traditions and their service to the Church. “Your Order, from its earliest days,” the Pope said, “has been marked by fidelity to the Church and to the Successor of Peter, and also for its unrenounceable spiritual identity, characterized by high religious ideals… Your esteemed and beneficent activity, carried out in a variety of fields and in different parts of the world, and particularly focused on care of the sick through hospitals and health-care institutes, is not mere philanthropy, but an effective expression and a living testimony of evangelical love.” Full report is here.
