THE DAILY TELEGRAPH is asking its readers to believe that Gordon Brown is going to repeal the Act of Settlement barring Catholics from the throne and that furthermore this would make Franz, Duke of Bavaria the heir to the throne of England (c.f. "Act repeal could make Franz Herzog von Bayern new King of England and Scotland", by Richard Alleyne and Harry de Quetteville, Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2008). In reality, the British Parliament does not have the authority to unilaterally repeal the Act, since by convention it must consult with the sixteen commonwealth realms. (Hence why Edward VIII had only the options of either dumping Wallis Simpson or giving up the throne; London had consulted the dominion governments and they said they would not accept Mrs. Simpson as Queen, end of story). Thus Gordon Brown would actually need to consult with and receive unanimous approval from the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Granada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu, in addition to that of the United Kingdom.

Why, then, does the Daily Telegraph neglect to point out this necessity, seemingly obvious to anyone with more than a passing knowledge of the British constitution? Was the newspaper simply ignorant about the subject? If so, why did they choose to print an article about it without seeking further information from the plethora of readily-available sources? Or perhaps the newspaper did know but decided to ignore it in the interests of sensationalism? Either way, the proof is in the pudding: standards at the Daily Telegraph are not what they used to be.

The Blessed Emperor Charles at the funeral of the late Emperor Franz Joseph, the saint's great uncle, in November 1916. Between the Blessed Charles and his Empress, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, is Crown Prince Otto. Otto lives today, and is the head of the Hapsburg family.

Category: Monarchy | Previously: Our Holy Emperor

The steps of St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway, looking towards Park Row, March 1937.

As a child, Fra' Matthew lived in Egypt and Singapore where his father held army postings, and was educated at Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire and St. John's College, Cambridge. Passing out from Sandhurst, he was commissioned an officer in the Grenadier Guards, Britain's most senior infantry regiment. (The Coldstream Guards are actually older, but their seniority was reduced for backing Cromwell in the Civil War). Currently holding the rank of Colonel in the Territorial Army, Fra' Matthew served the Queen as Deputy Lieutenant for Northumberland for many years, and was appointed OBE.

"The new Grand Master affirms his resolve to continue the great work carried out by his predecessor," an official statement from the Order of Malta said, noting Fra' Matthew's "wide range of experience in Order affairs". Having joined the Order of Malta in 1977, Fra' Matthew took solemn vows in 1991 and was appointed Grand Prior of England in 1993, when the Grand Priory was resurrected after 450 years in abeyance. In that post he led humanitarian missions to Kosovo, central Serbia, and Croatia, and has attended the annual British pilgrimage to Lourdes with the handicapped and the disabled. "As well as his passion for the decorative arts," the official announcement continued, "and for history, for which his encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of the Order is legendary, as is his very British sense of humour, Fra' Matthew spends any free time possible in his beloved Northumberland countryside."

This election is a most welcome one, and I would go so far as to say the councillors have chosen very wisely. It is an immense honour for we English-speaking Catholics that yet another Grand Master has been chosen from our ranks. But of course Fra' Matthew was not chosen for being an Anglophone but rather for being Matthew Festing. Like Pope Benedict, he is a friend of the old rite of the Mass, and he was among the many prominent British Catholics (whose number included James MacMillan, Michael Ancram, Damian Thompson, Jamie Bogle, and others) who signed the 'Appeal from the British Isles' to Pope Benedict imploring a liberalization of the restrictions on the Tridentine rite (duly granted by the Holy Father in his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 2007).

While certainly an ardent respecter of tradition, Fra' Matthew is by no means a stuffy man but rather, as the Order's official statement noted, is known for his sense of humour. On the only occasion on which I met Fra' Matthew, I introduced him to Mrs. Burke (then Fraulein Hesser). Upon discovering that Abby hailed from the great state of California, Fra' Matthew regaled us with his memories of driving from Denver all the way to the Pacific coast of California. Upon reaching the great ocean (the Grand Prior very enthusiastically informed us), he took off his shoes, rolled up his trousers and went straight in!

The Order of Malta has been remarkable in that it has had no qualms about modernization while at the same time unabashedly keeping to its ancient traditions. In this, it is a shining beacon in a world which too often and too easily disregards the time-tested ways of our ancestors. The very prompt election of Fra' Matthew shows that the Order is of a firm mind and on a sound footing. We have no doubt that Fra' Matthew will continue the great centuries-long tradition of the Order of Malta: to defend the Faith, to serve the Poor.

Category: Order of Malta

ANOTHER STRIKE AGAINST Christendom's fragile frontiers: the assembly of the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo has unilaterally and illegally declared independence. The United States government, which is bound by its own law to deny recognition to the putative country, nonetheless swiftly extended official recognition to the Kosovar assembly's declaration. The U.S., which claims to currently be fighting a "Global War on Terror", has backed the Albanian Muslim UÇK terror group that has run Kosovo for nearly a decade now, and continually encouraged it because Washington views any defeat for the Serbs as by extension a defeat for a Russians; and in Washington's point-of-view, no matter how irrelevant it is to the actual safety and well-being of we Americans, any defeat for the Russians is a victory for Washington — or "the United States", as the clique of insipid upper-middle-class bureaucrats supported by the taxes of hard-working Americans likes to style its rule. (Naturally, a complete inversion of this attitude — in which any defeat for America is regarded as a victory for Russia — now reigns in Moscow. After a decade of Washington kicking Mother Russia while she was down, the Ruskies finally took the hint and so we once more have nuclear missiles aimed at our shores.)

The tombs of Kosovo's faithful departed are desecrated: thank you, Uncle Sam!

U.N. Resolution 1244 created an autonomous administration for Kosovo under which democratic elections have taken place. Almost all the positions of authority that are not held by U.N. appointees are held by high-ranking members of the UÇK or the prominent supporters thereof. The autonomy they have enjoyed has been exceptionally broad and met with minimal interference from the national government in Belgrade. The results of Kosovar self-rule are apparent. The Christian Serbs are continually intimidated with force, Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries (many of them centuries-old and containing irreplaceable works of sacred art) have been routinely attacked and even burnt to the ground, and the province has become a vital trading center on the East-to-West human sex trafficking route.

The sacred images of God's holy saints are desecrated: thank you, Uncle Sam!

But to Washington, all this is irrelevant. When the news cameras come out, the leaders of Kosovo wear smart Western suits and speak all the typical non-language of Western bureaucrats, and have pledged to make their Kosovo a modern secular state, despite the sex trafficking, rampant unemployment, Serb-baiting, church-burning, and whatnot. They know on which side their bread is buttered, and they are extremely grateful to America, without which they'd still be ordinary people forced to work for a living.

The homes of Christian families are destroyed: thank you, Uncle Sam!

The major powers agreed, in Resolution 1244, that the integrity of Serbia's borders and sovereignty were to be recognized, permanently. In extending our putative recognition to the putative independence of Kosovo, our government have not only lent our support to breaking Serbia's laws, but broken our own laws. I'll be the first to admit that it is rather absurd that the United States is constitutionally bound to comply with resolutions of the U.N. Security Council, but as undesirable as this is, it is nonetheless the truth. I don't think anyone realistically expected that when we agreed to continue recognition of Serbia's sovereignty in Kosovo we actually meant it. Washington likes to wait a few years to get used to the idea of performing an act of naked hypocrisy, in the hopes that others will get used to the idea as well.

Christian churches are desecrated and demolished: thank you, Uncle Sam!

It has been said by the recognizing powers that this situation "should not be interpreted as a precedent". Of course, despite governmental fiats, that is precisely what it will be interpreted as. This is no sudden conversion to the soundness of separatism on Washington's part. While it would only be logical to conclude that, having supported unilateral independence for Kosovo, it will now cheerfully support the same for Flanders, Northern Cyprus, the Republika Srpska, or Transnistria, this will never happen. Our overlords refuse to be bound by the constraints of logical thinking.

(Of course, there have been some voices of sanity amidst the storm. Spain, Sri Lanka, and a handful of others have protested the recognition of Kosovo, because these are countries which find themselves in largely similar positions to Serbia, with violent separatist movements acting within their own borders.)

But by and large, the fatuousness and hypocrisy of our government and those of our allies will be apparent. (Washington should keep in mind that there are more Mexicans in southern California than there are Albanians in Kosovo). Thugs everywhere will hope that they can follow the path set by Kosovo — launch a violent revolution, make sure some of your own people are massacred, and get some willing fools from the West (they are legion) to claim that civilian deaths are an act of genocide — and then hopefully they will get Britain and America to recognize their own petty thug statelets. Then maybe they can get in on the trafficking of innocent young girls. It is not without irony that one of the major thoroughfares in Kosovo's capital city is named after that great upholder of the human dignity of women: Bill Clinton Boulevard.

The homes of Christian families are destroyed: thank you, Uncle Sam!

It sometimes seems that all we can do is pray, and so pray we shall. Our faith is stronger than the avarice of those evil men in Washington, Moscow, or wherever they may be. They lust after nothing but the vain pomp and glory of the world, and that is very little indeed when compared to Paradise.

From the funeral of the late Fra' Andrew Bertie.

Tip o' the hat: Fr. Guy Sylvester

The Prince & Grand Master reviews volunteers in St. Peter's Square in 1999, the Order's ninth centenary.

Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie was born in London on May 15, 1929 to Lt. Cdr. the Hon. James Bertie and Lady Jean Crichton-Stuart. His paternal grandfather was the 7th Earl of Abingdon, while his maternal grandfather was the 4th Marquess of Bute, and so Andrew Bertie was the great-grandson of the famous Catholic convert and benefactor of myriad causes (including, memorably, the University of St Andrews), John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute.

Fra' Andrew had received Cardinal Ratzinger at the Magistral Palace, and upon the latter's elevation to the Papacy it was Benedict XVI's turn to receive the Grand Master, traditionally every June 24, the Feast of St. John.

Bertie (whose surname is traditionally pronounced "Bartie") was educated by the Benedictines at Ampleforth Abbey, and graduated from Christ Church Oxford with a degree in Modern History, later studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. The English member of a Scottish family, he appropriately served in the Scots Guards, leaving as a commissioned officer in 1949. After a brief stint as a financial journalist in the City of London, he moved to the school at Worth Abbey in Sussex, where he taught French and Spanish for twenty-three years.

Andrew Bertie became Fra' Andrew in 1981, and the newly-professed Knight of Justice was appointed to the Sovereign Council of the Order. The Order of Malta is unique in that, unlike any other military, chivalric, or religious order, it is juridically sovereign. The Order's sovereignty dates to when, like other sovereign entities such as France, Canada, or India, it ruled over a geographic territory, originally the Greek island of Rhodes, and later the Mediterranean island of Malta. Of course, the Order has become permanently associated with the island of Malta despite having lost control of it in 1798 when Napoleon took advantage of the fact that the Order forbade itself from fighting against fellow Christians. After the fall of Napoleon, Malta became a British colony. Though its territory was lost, the Order has continued to maintain its sovereignty, and as such enjoys diplomatic relations with several states (with ambassadors exchanged) and has official governmental relations with others.

Fra' Andrew is depicted receiving the standard of the Order from St. John the Baptist, it's patron on one of the coins minted by the Knights.

The Order eventually found itself at Rome, where it is still headquartered to this day, and continued its numerous charitable activities for the poor and the sick. Fra' Andrew continued the modernization undertaken by his predecessor, Fra' Angelo de Mojana di Cologna in transforming the Order's charitable activities to suit the present-day needs of humanitarian relief. The official motto of the order is Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum, "Defense of the Faith and Service of the Poor", but another motto used frequently by the Order is Seigneurs, Malades, "Our lords: the sick".

At the Order's International Pilgrimage to Lourdes, May 2006.

Fra' Andrew commented that ever since the foundation of the first hospital in Jerusalem, the purpose of the Order has remained: "The other military orders were there to fight the Saracens and to save Spain or the Holy Land or Prussia from the pagans. But we always had this special commitment to the poor and the sick. Our aims today are exactly the same as they were in 1099, the sanctification of our members through service to the sick."

On an official state visit to Budapest, May 2004.

Under Fra' Andrew's guidance, the number of countries with which the Order of Malta has diplomatic relations has doubled, and now stands at 100 (some of them non-Catholic countries). The Order has 12,500 Knights and Dames, 93,000 volunteers (80,000 of them specially-trained), and 13,000 employees (overwhelmingly doctors, nurses, and stretcher-bearers), with a presence in 120 countries.

Exhibiting the Church of Santa Maria del Priorato to the Romanian President, October 2004.

The operations of the Order today are astounding. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain in the early years of Fra' Andrew's reign, the Order of Malta rapidly expanded its charitable works in Central and Eastern Europe. Irish knights founded an ambulance corps in the 1920s and since that time the Order has become a major provider of first-aid training, ambulance transport, and community care services. In Scotland, the Order supports Dial-A-Journey, a charity that helps to keep the elderly mobile and help them get around. Hospitals were, of course, the very first work of the Order, and it maintains hospitals today throughout the world. The hospital in Rome specializes in neurological treatment and rehabilitation. "John & Lizzies", the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth in St. John's Wood, London, has a unit specializing in the treatment of the terminally ill.

The Order of Malta's humanitarian relief station at a refugee camp, Kosovo, 1999.

Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem is the only provider of Western-quality health services for pregnant women in the Palestinian West Bank. The French Association of the Order of Malta runs hospitals in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Madagascar, and Togo. The Order runs leprosy care centers in Senegal and Cambodia, as well as Brazil. In France there are nine specialized centers for the disabled, and there are similar institutions run by the Order in Hungary, Poland, Lebanon, Ecuador, and the United States. One of the most prominent works of the Order with the disabled is their help in bringing the disabled to Lourdes. (Andrew Bertie was Hospitaller of the Sanctuary of Lourdes). These are just a sample of the works carried out under the auspices of the Order of Malta; there are also orphanages, centers for youth and adolescents, kindergartens for the poor, shelters for the homeless, rehabilitation centers for drug addicts, and rapid reaction humanitarian relief teams to care for the survivors of natural disasters and war, and for the accomodation of refugees.

"To be a member of the order is not an honor. It's not about being able to dangle a nice cross around your neck. It's not a question of sending in a check once a year. It's about working with the sick and the poor," the late Grand Master once said. "Our aim is to help the poor and the sick, that is and always has been our primary aim".

Fra' Andrew was also a black belt in Judo and organized as well as taught Judo courses to the young in Malta. He was Patron of the Malta Judo Federation, which has announced that the Under-20 international tournament they organize will now be named the Andrew Bertie Memorial Tournament. The Federation released a statement which said that they will greatly miss Fra' Andrew.

The normally reserved Grand Master takes a few moments to chat with one of the Order's volunteers acting as stewards and first-aid responders in Rome after the death of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI.

In a statement to Bailiff Frà Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, the Grand Commander of the Order who has been named Lieutenant ad interim until a new Grand Master is elected, Pope Benedict XVI mourned Fra' Andrew and praised "the work of this man of culture and of his generous commitment in the fulfillment of his high office, especially in favor of those most in need, and for his love for the Church and for his luminous testimony of the principles of the Gospel".

"When you spoke to him, you felt you were in the presence of a serene, humble person," said Dr. Fenech Adami, the President of the Republic of Malta. "He was a very holy man who loved Malta a lot, especially for its ties with the Order". As the official statement from the Magistral Palace stated, Bertie spent a great deal of time in Malta, "where he was very involved in organising and teaching judo courses for children as well as tending his farm, whose four different varieties of oranges were a constant source of pride in good weather and anxiety in bad."

The earthly remains of Fra' Andrew Bertie are now lying in state in the Chapel of Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine Hill in Rome. The Grand Master was received into Santa Maria del Priorato on Friday afternoon by his brother Peregrine Bertie, the members of the Sovereign Council, and some of the Grand Master's colleagues. The Chapel will remain open every day between 10:00am and 6:00pm until Friday February 15. The Chapel will be reserved for members of the diplomatic corps to pay their respects between 10:30 and 12:30 on the 11th and 12th.

The funeral will take place at the Basilica of Santa Sabina at 11:30 on Saturday, February 16. The official state funeral will take place 30 days after the death, on March 8.

Frater
Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie
Prince and Grand Master
of the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St. John
of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta
Most Humble Guardian of the Poor of Jesus Christ

May 15, 1929 - February 7, 2008

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
Amen.

Category: Order of Malta