The latest issue of the Italian news magazine Panorama claims there is much ‘disorder’ in the Order of Malta.

A one-page report said the Order is in the throes of a harsh controversy with the present heads of the Order on the one side and the younger knights, supported by sectors of the Vatican, on the other.

The discontented sector, which the magazine says coalesce around Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, spiritual head of the 11,500 knights spread around the world, say the Order is becoming older and more lay, so much so that the number of those who have made the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the General Council are now in a minority compared to the lay members.

Besides, according to the discontented sector as well, the Order is becoming more and more like a humanitarian organisation, implementing programmes financed by the EU and by the single States. This is helping reduce the order to a sort of agency from being an independent State which is recognised by 93 countries and has a special relation ship with the Vatican.

The magazine claims there is a current move within the Order to “convince” Grand Master Fra Andrew Bertie, to resign even though he is nominated for life, and also to push forward the new strongman of the order, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Mazery, as from last April the Grand Chancellor of the Order and the officer responsible for the administration of the Order. He is not a nobleman and a layman.