Pope probes Order of Malta ouster engineered by own envoy

Pope Francis on Thursday named a commission to investigate the ouster of a top official at the Order of Malta amid suspicion that his own envoy to the group, conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke, helped engineer the removal without his blessing.

The order's grand chancellor, Albrecht von Boeselager, was forcibly ousted Dec. 8 after the Order of Malta said "an extremely grave and untenable situation" came to light.

The issue concerned a program that the order's Malteser International aid group had participated in several years ago with other aid groups to help sex slaves in Myanmar. The women had been trafficked and were working as prostitutes, and were given condoms to protect themselves from AIDS, two people familiar with the case said.

An internal investigation was conducted and von Boeslager admitted he knew about the condoms, which were distributed by other aid programs, not his. The Vatican was informed and Malteser International's participation in the program ended, the officials said.

Catholic church teaching opposes artificial contraception. However, some Catholic priests and nuns in Africa and elsewhere have condoned the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. Francis himself has said that "avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil" when, for example, women are at risk of the Zika virus.

By naming an independent commission to look into the case, Francis appears to be seeking an objective assessment of von Boeselager and his ouster without the input of Burke, an archconservative who has been among Francis' fiercest critics.

Burke, for example, is one of four cardinals who have publicly questioned Francis' flexible approach to whether civilly remarried can receive Communion. Burke is a hard-liner on the issue, as well as on the absolute prohibition on the use of artificial contraception.

Francis removed him as the Vatican's supreme court justice in 2014 and named him to be the patron of the Order of Malta, an ancient Catholic order that runs hospitals and clinics around the world and has an army of volunteers who respond to natural disasters and war zones.

Burke had conveyed to the Order of Malta's governing council on Dec. 6 that Francis wanted von Boeselager to resign, the two people familiar with the case said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak about internal meetings. He warned that if von Boeselager wasn't removed, the Vatican would take over the order's properties, they said.

On Dec. 15, a new grand chancellor was elected to succeed him, John Edward Critien.

The pope's five-member commission of inquiry is made up of Order of Malta members who have close ties to the German-born von Boeselager. Francis also named a trusted Jesuit canon lawyer as a member.

The knights trace their history to the 11th century with the establishment of an infirmary in Jerusalem that cared for people of all faiths making pilgrimages to the Holy Land.