Pope Francis has just entrusted the mission of closely watching over the Order of Malta to a trusted man. Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda – a Jesuit wearing the purple but not the episcopate – became, at the age of 80, the new “patronus” of the Order of Malta.
An office defined as follows in article 5 of the new Constitution the Pope imposed on the knights: “The Sovereign Pontiff appoints as his representative to the Order a cardinal with the title of Cardinalis Patronus, who may be endowed with special faculties. The Cardinal, as a sign of the Holy Father’s concern for the Order, has the task of promoting the spiritual good of the Order and its members, as well as the relations between the Holy See and the Order.”
Behind the language elements, it may be understood that the power of the cardinal-patron is of great latitude within the Order, and that he has full powers to implement a painfully delivered reform, a revision imposed by the successor of Peter on September 3, 2022, and which deeply divided the knights.
As proof, Francis entrusted the cardinal-patron with new prerogatives: “to convene” and “co-preside” at the Extraordinary General Chapter, by defining ad hoc regulations; to approve the Constitutional Charter and convene the Council of State to elect the Grand Master. Suffice it to say, the faculties of Fra’ John Dunlap, the Grand Master elected on May 3, are now largely subordinate to ecclesiastical power, a small revolution in a sovereign order.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda is not a novice at this: former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, it was he who was charged as “pontifical adviser” for the Legionaries of Christ, to clean the Augean stables after the discovery of the abuses by their founder, in engaging the reform process for this congregation.
It was he too who ensured a large part of the legal supervision of the new constitution of the Curia: he notably pleaded strongly with the Roman pontiff to disconnect episcopal ordination and power of government, paving the way for lay people to henceforth be able to exercise a power of government within the Roman Curia.
The revision of the Opus Dei statutes is also the fruit of Fr. Ghirlanda’s work: a painful reform too, since from now on the personal prelature no longer depends on the Dicastery for Bishops, but on the Dicastery for Clergy. A way of profoundly modifying the governance of an institute over which the Prelate General once exercised immense power.
Cardinal Ghirlanda also imposed a new requirement on the institute founded by Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer: to submit an annual—no longer every five years—activity report the Curia. Certainly, confidence reigns.
Needless to say, the appointment of the new Cardinal-Patron of the Order of Malta may set many knightson edge, who deplore yet another attack on their sovereignty, which is now a part of the past.
Francis has just appointed a successor to Cardinal Raymond Burke as “Cardinalis Patronus” of the Sovereign Order of Malta, in the person of Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda. A renowned canonist who oversaw the reform of the Curia, the high prelate also carried out the reforms of the Legionaries of Christ and Opus Dei, in the direction requested by the Pope.