VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Keeping the Catholic faith and caring for the poor, sick and afflicted are inseparable, Pope Francis said.
Tending to the concrete and spiritual needs of the world’s marginalized “is not only humanitarian, like the meritorious work of so many other institutions: it is a religious action, giving glory to God in serving the weakest and testifying to the Lord’s preferential love for them,” the pope told ambassadors representing the Order of Malta Jan. 27.
Safeguarding the Catholic faith and honoring the poor “cannot be separated,” the pope said. “When we draw close to the least, to the poor, to the afflicted, let us recall that what we do is a sign of Jesus’ compassion and tenderness.”
The lay religious order operates in more than 120 countries providing relief to areas hit by natural disasters, aid for the victims of armed conflict and medical attention to the poor.
Speaking to the ambassadors, Pope Francis said that the Knights of Malta’s diplomatic activity is also the work of a religious order. “If it did not have the aim of bearing witness to God’s love for those in need, it would make no sense for it to be carried out by a religious order,” he said.
Founded in Jerusalem in the 11th century, the Order of Malta is recognized as a sovereign state by international law, which helps to facilitate its humanitarian missions around the world and maintain diplomatic relations with some 113 countries.
Pope Francis said that as a body subordinate to the Holy See, the order’s diplomatic representatives should have a “fruitful collaboration” with the Vatican representative serving in the same place.
“The order’s bond with the pope is not a limitation of its freedom but a safeguard, which is expressed in Peter’s concern for ensuring its greater good, as has happened more than once, even with direct interventions in times of difficulty,” he said.
From 2017 to 2022, the Sovereign Order of Malta had been involved in a papally-mandated process to revise its constitution and promote its spiritual renewal. In May 2023, the order returned to its normal governance with the election of a Canadian lawyer, Fra’ John T. Dunlap, as grand master.
Dunlap attended the Jan. 27 meeting with the pope, as well as Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, patron of the Order of Malta, and Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, a former Vatican diplomat and former secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, who was a speaker at the conference the ambassadors were attending.
The Order of Malta’s dependence on the Holy See “does not diminish the importance of its diplomatic representations,” Pope Francis told the group of ambassadors. “On the contrary, it allows their meaning to be even better understood as channels of the order’s apostolic (and) charitable activity, open and generous especially where there is most need.”
The pope praised the order’s “humanitarian diplomacy,” which he said is a “valuable witness (and) eloquent sign for other embassies as well, so that their activities, too, may be aimed at the concrete good of people and hold the weakest in high regard.”
The group’s meeting with the pope ended the ambassadors’ conference, which also included meetings with Giuliano Amato, the former prime minister of Italy; Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme; and Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration.
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