Martin Testaferrata Moroni Viani’s rather depressing letter (Why Do We Always Have To Take Sides, June 22) requires a reply as he chooses, by accident or by design, to ignore the tremendous work done worldwide by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) or the Knights of Malta. The Order runs a foreign aid service by the name of Malteser International, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually in troubled spots around the world. Recent and current examples include the Congo, Lebanon, Myanmar (Burma), Haiti and Kosovo.

In Italy, the Order is integrated into the Armed Forces’ Medical Corps; in Ireland, it runs the country’s ambulance service. In the UK, it runs a network of nursing homes. The Maltese Association is active in various areas of the health sector, including Boffa Hospital.

SMOM is recognised by the United Nations, the Vatican and over 100 countries with whom it maintains official diplomatic relations, as the continuation of the Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, set up in 1099 to aid and provide health care for pilgrims to the Holy Land. It has over 12,000 members throughout the world and employs several thousand doctors, nurses and health care workers across the globe.

SMOM is a religious Order; the Grand Master and the members of the highest rank, the Knights of Justice, are monks, who are given special dispensation by the Church to live in their own homes. Each successive Grand Master carries the rank of Cardinal in the Catholic Church.

For Mr Testafferata Moroni Viani to dismiss SMOM’s legitimacy and activities in such a hostile manner, therefore, reflects very poorly upon him.

Where the Order itself has had issues is with the fact that there are several groups of people who have banded themselves into organisations which they variousy call the “Knights of Malta” or the “Order of St John”. Such groups have no diplomatic or religious recognition by any state around the world or by the Church.

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