Contrasting claims of ‘genuine’ or ‘false’ orders

Anton R. Borg (Tremendous Work Done By The Knights, June 25) would have spared himself a long letter had he cared to understand mine (Why Do We Always Have To Take Sides, June 22). Mr Borg went off at a tangent explaining the great and tremendous charitable works the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is involved in. This was never the issue.

The issue is twofold: How an NGO that has international sovereign-state status claims to be the successor of the authentic Order that was associated with Malta and how the same international body is allowed to pontificate on local issues.

Readers may recall how as recently as last year an African chief was going to be invested as a Knight of St John/Malta in the former Conventual church in Valletta but the SMOM successfully called for the ceremony’s cancellation because it described the organiser as “false”.

What I find most objectional in principle is the SMOM – a non-Maltese entity – is allowed to dictate how our state property is to be made use of.

A foreigner’s dignity gets embarrassed in our country by another foreigner regarding our property and unnecessary divisions and feelings are caused among us Maltese.

The competing claims of “genuine” and “false” Orders should not be of any concern to us and our state should not permit any of these competitors to dominate the ceremonies of any of our state festivities.

On the other hand, there’s an attractive compromise in the sense that each competitor could be asked to pay for participation in our festivities. Mr Borg has kindly revealed the “millions of dollars” at disposal of the SMOM.

Thanks to him we could now consider charging it, say, a couple of million dollars for purposes of using our country’s good name, if not to alleviate our costs of hosting refugees who appear to be fleeing from the very same countries where SMOM, and other similar orders, are sending supplies and assistance.

What I find funny is that a closer examination of the credentials claimed by the SMOM as “successor” of the authentic Order (now long defunct) reveals that those of the SMOM are not much better than any other Order that SMOM holds to be “false”.

It is true that the SMOM has the comfort of being backed by His Holiness the Pope but that in itself does not prove continuity of succession from Blessed Gerard’s group (which, incidentally, did not enjoy papal recognition immediately on formation).

In fact, as recently as 19th century, the Popes are on record for acknowledging that their direct appointments of SMOM’s Gran d Masters were in complete breach of the Statute and laws of the authentic Order that dominated Malta up to 1798.

The logical sequence is therefore that today’s SMOM is just the preferred “new boy in town”.

I take this opportunity to extend my best wishes to all orders of St John, without distinction.