knights of Malta
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/us/church-militant-theology-is-put-to-new-and-politicized-use.html?r=0">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/us/<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">church-militant</span>-theology-is-put-to-new-and-politicized-use.html?r=0</a></font></div><div>...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem;">he words could serve as a mission statement for Mr. Vorsi’s ChurchMilitant.com. A television producer who renounced his earlier life as a gay man, Mr. Voris, 55, has developed a media operation from ChurchMilitant.com’s studio in suburban Detroit that produces books, online articles, YouTube videos, podcasts and a daily talk show. These cumulatively attract about 1.5 million views a month, he said.</span></div><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="407" data-total-count="5858" id="story-continues-8" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In an earlier iteration, ChurchMilitant.com operated as Real Catholic TV, until the Archdiocese of Detroit forced it to stop using the name because it had no permission. While some of the core issues for ChurchMilitant.com are staples of traditionalist Catholics — advocating the Latin Mass, for instance — others map neatly onto the secular political landscape. And they do so in a highly strident way.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="436" data-total-count="6294" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ChurchMilitant.com, for example, has <a href="http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/download-populism-up-globalism-down" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">dismissed climate change</a> as a hoax. It likened the <a href="http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/vortex-temples-of-sedition" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">Black Lives Matter movement</a> to “the new fascism.” Hillary Clinton, whom it routinely calls “Killary,” was “Satan’s mop for wiping up the last remaining resistance to him in America.” <a href="http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/talk-2012-10-01-e" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">Mr. Voris has described</a> social-welfare programs as a system in which “half the people of America” pay no taxes and “get things handed to them.”</span></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="436" data-total-count="6294" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/world/europe/ten-centuries-later-a-pope-and-knights-do-battle.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/world/europe/ten-centuries-later-a-pope-and-knights-do-battle.html</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="381" data-total-count="381" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem; max-width: none; width: 570px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROME — It began as a fight over staffing. Then came a dispute about condoms, followed by papal concerns about Freemasons. Now it has become a full-scale proxy war between <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/francis_i/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Pope Francis." class="meta-per">Pope Francis</a> and the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_catholic_church/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the Roman Catholic Church." class="meta-org">Vatican</a> traditionalists who oppose him, with the battleground being a Renaissance palace flanked by Jimmy Choo and Hermès storefronts on Via dei Condotti, Rome’s most exclusive street.</font></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="379" data-total-count="760" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem; max-width: none; width: 570px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The palace is the headquarters of the<b> Knights of Malta, the medieval Roman Catholic order. </b>For months, an ugly, if quiet, spat over staffing simmered behind the order’s walls before spilling across the Tiber River to the Vatican, setting off a back-and-forth between the two camps. Francis and his lieutenants sent angry letters. The Knights ignored them, claiming sovereignty.</font></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="254" data-total-count="1014" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem; max-width: none; width: 570px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This past week, the dispute finally blew up. Fed up, Francis took the extraordinary steps of demanding the resignation of the order’s leader — a decision the Knights officially accepted Saturday — and announcing that a papal delegate would step in.</font></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="311" data-total-count="1325" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem; max-width: none; width: 570px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservatives promptly denounced what they called an illegal annexation and ideological purging by a power-obsessed pontiff, while liberal observers saw the whole episode as resulting from an act of subterfuge by the pope’s most public critic within the Vatican hierarchy, <b>Cardinal Raymond Burke,</b> an American.</font></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="311" data-total-count="1325" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem; max-width: none; width: 570px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="158" data-total-count="1483" id="story-continues-2" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A seemingly obscure intra-Catholic squabble had erupted into an unexpected shock to the church with ideological fault lines running to the top of the Vatican.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="232" data-total-count="1715" id="story-continues-3" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The Vatican is a thing built of tradition,” said John Thavis, the author of “The Vatican Diaries” and a veteran church analyst, “and once those traditional parts start feuding with each other, that is a dangerous sign.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="392" data-total-count="2107" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Francis remains one of the world’s most popular figures, but the spat with the Knights is a small indicator of how the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">political tensions rippling across the globe are alive in the Vatican, too. Only a year ago, Francis’ calls to fight climate change and help migrants seemed to place him in the lead of a progressive global vanguard, in keeping with his push for a more welcoming church.</span></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="272" data-total-count="2379" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Now, suddenly, he is more politically isolated. The election of President Trump and the rise of far-right populists in Europe have ushered in an angrier era — and emboldened traditionalists inside the Vatican who sense that the once-impregnable pope could be vulnerable.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="510" data-total-count="2889" id="story-continues-4" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Knights of Malta is a bastion of Catholic tradition. Founded in the 11th century by Amalfian merchants to help Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land, it later became a military force, defending the faith during the Crusades and eventually holding off the armies of the Ottoman Empire from its fortress in Malta. The group, now with a wealthy and aristocratic membership of elite Catholics who parade in ornate raiment, has more recently specialized in <b>aiding refugees</b> and the poor in more than 100 countries.</span></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="254" data-total-count="3143" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Until this past week, the order was led by the conservative and elaborately titled His Most Eminent Highness the Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Matthew Festing of Britain, a former<b> Sotheby’s</b> representative who had taken a monastic oath.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="387" data-total-count="3530" id="story-continues-5" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Long-building tensions between Mr. Festing and the order’s Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager of Germany, whose father participated in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, escalated in recent months amid accusations that Mr. Boeselager had knowingly overseen the distribution of condoms as head of the order’s charitable arm. Into this volatile situation stepped Cardinal Burke.</span></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="344" data-total-count="3874" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2014, Francis had demoted Cardinal Burke, a leader of the church’s traditionalist movement, from his position on the Vatican’s Supreme Court. The cardinal’s supporters say Francis did this because of Cardinal Burke’s opposition to the pope’s tentative opening to the possibility of allowing divorced Catholics to receive communion.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="159" data-total-count="4033" id="story-continues-6" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cardinal Burke’s exile was at least a cushy one, as the pope named him as the Knights’ patron and liaison to the Vatican, where he would be out of the way.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="56" data-total-count="4089" id="story-continues-7" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the soft-spoken cardinal has made his presence felt.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="289" data-total-count="4378" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During the summer, as tensions mounted inside the order, Michael Hichborn, the president of the Lepanto Institute, a conservative Catholic organization in Virginia, conducted what he called a “short investigation” into the order’s international aid arm, which Mr. Boeselager oversaw.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="171" data-total-count="4549" id="story-continues-8" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mr. Hichborn said he had discovered that the aid organization was promoting the use of condoms and other contraceptives in Africa and Myanmar, a violation of church rules.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="128" data-total-count="4677" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“As I was digging around I thought, ‘Well, Cardinal Burke ought to know about this,’” Mr. Hichborn said in an interview.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="128" data-total-count="4677" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; max-width: none; width: 570px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/19/who-are-the-knights-of-malta-and-what-do-they-want/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> speech in Doha on Monday, veteran</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> </span><i style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-variant="font-variant" inherit="inherit" font-weight="font-weight" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline">New Yorker</i><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">journalist Seymour Hersh</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> </span><a href="http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/seymour_hersh_unleashed" target="blank" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant="font-variant" font-weight="font-weight" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" text-decoration="text-decoration" none="none">alleged</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">that the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) had been infiltrated by Christian fanatics who see themselves as modern-day Crusaders and aim to "change mosques into cathedrals." In particular, he alleged that former JSOC head Gen. Stanley McChrystal — later U.S. commander in Afghanistan — and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many other senior leaders of the command, are "are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta." What was he talking about?</span></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not exactly clear. There’s not much evidence to suggest that the Knights of Malta are the secretive cabal of anti-Muslim fundamentalists that Hersh described. (For the record, when contacted by <span class="fp_red" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreign Policy</span>, McChrystal said that he is not a member.) But they are certainly an anomalous presence in international politics and have provoked their share of conspiracy theories over the years.</font></p><div class="ds_cpp" data-dvp_delay_init="1" data-dvp_title_trim="60" data-dvp_desc_trim="120" data-dvp_zindex_base="90" data-dvp_mute_ad_na="0" data-dvp_friendly_iframe_na="0" id="ds_cpp" ds_maxheight="600px" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 5px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; max-width: 645px; clear: both; max-height: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="ds_cpp_inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid lightgray; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><div class="ds_body" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 643px;"><div id="ds_player_sensor" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px; height: 1px; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -300px; background-color: initial;"><div id="ds_player_container" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 643px; height: 362px; margin: 0px auto !important; padding: 0px !important; border: none !important; position: relative !important;"><div id="ds_content_frame_parent" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 643px; height: 362px; position: relative !important;"><div id="ds_ad_container" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: -1; width: 643px; height: 362px; margin: 0px auto !important; text-align: center !important; position: absolute !important; top: 0px !important; left: 0px !important; background-color: black !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 643px; height: 330px; z-index: 95; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant-ligatures="font-variant-ligatures" font-variant-caps="font-variant-caps" font-weight="font-weight" text-align="text-align" right="right" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta is a Roman Catholic organization based in Rome with around 13,000 members worldwide. The group was</span><a href="http://www.orderofmalta.org/history/639/history-order-of-malta/?lang=en" target="blank" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant="font-variant" font-weight="font-weight" text-align="text-align" right="right" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" text-decoration="text-decoration" none="none" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> founded</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant-ligatures="font-variant-ligatures" font-variant-caps="font-variant-caps" font-weight="font-weight" text-align="text-align" right="right" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant-ligatures="font-variant-ligatures" font-variant-caps="font-variant-caps" font-weight="font-weight" text-align="text-align" right="right" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">in 1048 by Amalfian merchants in Jerusalem as a monastic order that ran a hospital to tend to Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. At the height of its power, the order was also tasked by Rome with the additional military function of defending Christians from the local Muslim population. The Knights of St. John were just one of a number of Christian military orders founded during this period — including the fabled but now defunct Knights of Templar. </span></font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 643px; height: 330px; z-index: 95; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; cursor: pointer;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the Sultan of Egypt retook Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights of St. John went into exile, settling in Rhodes 20 years later. In 1523 they were forced from Rhodes by the Sultan’s forces and settled in Malta, which they ruled until they were dislodged by Napoleon’s army in 1798. The order settled in Rome in the mid-19th century, where it remains to this day.</font></span></div></div></div></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite its name, the Knights haven’t had any military function since leaving Malta. Instead, the order has gone back to its charitable roots by <a href="http://www.orderofmalta.org/medical-and-humanitarian-activities/55/the-mission-to-help-the-sick-and-the-needy/?lang=en" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">sponsoring medical missions</a> in more than 120 countries.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the order was founded, knights were expected to take a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience upon joining. Nowadays, obedience is enough. Membership is still by invitation only, but you no longer have to be a member of the nobility. In recent years, the organization has become <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/07/world/knights-of-malta-and-us-picking-new-chief.html?scp=5&sq=knights%20of%20malta&st=cse" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">increasingly American</a> in membership. The leader of the order, referred to as the <a href="http://www.orderofmalta.org/the-order-and-its-institutions/246/fra-matthew-festing-2/?lang=en" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">prince and grand master</a>, is elected for life in a secret conclave and must be approved by the pope.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite having no fixed territory besides its headquarters building in Rome, the order is considered a sovereign entity under international law. It prints its own postage stamps and coins — though these are mostly for novelty value — and enjoys observer status at the United Nations, which <a href="http://www.un.org/en/members/intergovorg.shtml" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">classifies it</a> as a nonstate entity like the Red Cross. The Knights <a href="http://www.orderofmalta.org/diplomatic-relations/862/bilateral-relations-with-countries/?lang=en" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">maintain diplomatic relations</a> with 104 countries. The order does not have official relations with the United States, though it has offices in New York, for the United Nations delegation, and Washington, for its representation at the Inter-American Development Bank.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because of its secretive proceedings, unique political status, and association with the Crusades, the order has been a <a href="http://moversandshakersofthesmom.blogspot.com/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">popular target</a> for <a href="http://themasonicilluminati.blogspot.com/2010/10/illuminati-news-blackwater-knights-of.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">conspiracy theorists</a>. Alleged members <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4QBjaEMELSsC&pg=PA242&lpg=PA242&dq=order+of+malta+conspiracy+theories&source=bl&ots=qsxdLglWxu&sig=2ix00Q25NqxrG8yucfSdZt-Tr8I&hl=en&ei=9ws3TfWqMMqdgQevkJS_Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCA#v=onepage" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">have included</a> former CIA Directors William Casey and John McCone, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, and GOP fixture Pat Buchanan, though none have ever acknowledged membership. Various theories have tied the Knights to crimes including the <a href="http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread410110/pg1" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Kennedy assassination</a> and <a href="http://www.noorclinic.com/health_articles/venereal_disease/aids_black_ops.htm" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">spreading the AIDS virus</a> through its clinics in Africa.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2006, a newspaper article in the United Arab Emirates <a href="http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.1670211157" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">claimed</a> that the Knights were directly influencing U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, reprising their role in the Crusades. Following the article, Islamist websites in Egypt urged followers to attack the order’s embassy in Cairo, forcing the organization to issue a statement denying any military role.</font></p><p class="last" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To be fair, the Knights have been involved in their fair share of political intrigues. In 1988, the charge d’affaires at the order’s embassy in Havana <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/07/world/knights-of-malta-and-us-picking-new-chief.html?scp=5&sq=knights%20of%20malta&st=cse" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">confessed to being a double agent</a>, reporting to both the CIA and Cuban intelligence. According to journalist Jeremy Scahill’s book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156858394X?ie=UTF8&tag=fopo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=156858394X" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Blackwater</i></a>,<i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Schmitz, a former executive at the company who also served as inspector general for the U.S. Department of Defense, boasted of his membership in the Knights in his official biography. The defense contractor now known as Xe’s chief executive, Erik Prince, <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6740735.ece" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">reportedly espoused</a> Christian supremacist beliefs, and its contractors in Iraq used codes and insignia based on the order’s medieval compatriots, the Knights of the Templar. However, there’s no evidence to suggest the Knights of Malta had any direct influence over the company.</i></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.05rem; vertical-align: baseline; width: 615.047px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So while the group is, for the most part, a charitable organization with little resemblance to the sinister portrait painted by its detractors, an image-makeover might be in order as it finishes off its 10th century</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div>