Maltese Newspaper Article by John Brady - Grand Master!

Source: "The Independent", Malta April 2001

A tragic error
It is most unfortunate and it pains us greatly to see the attention and decorum currently being given to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) by the island's officials and news media. The SMOM is honourable, large, wealthy, and has the current approval of the Vatican. Nevertheless it is not the historic order. It is a creation of several Italian "knights" who gained the recognition of the Vatican in the first half of the 19th century. It is a papal order. It is a charitable association which performs good charitable work for which it can be commended. However, its claim to continuity with the true historic order of knighthood is simply false. The Tsars had been benefactors and protectors of the Order. After the fall of Malta to Napoleon in 1798, the Knights of the	Sovereign Order re-assembled in St Petersburg, Russia, where they elected Tsar Paul I the Grand Master of the Order. This election was recognised by Pope Pius VI. The Order, though small, Maintained its headquarters in the Palace of Malta in St Petersburg until the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. The Russian Grand Priory was re-established in Paris in 1922 and various Hereditary Knights and other elements of the order remained extra-territorial and with informal relationships until the official reconstitution of the historic order in the United States in the 1980s where it is now headquartered. The present Prince Grand Master of the Order was elected in 1991 at the first true Chapter General of the Order since 1798. We can readily demonstrate continuity and historic origin in Jerusalem.	The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is not sovereign, it is not military (it never fought a battle) and has never been headquartered in Malta. The recent efforts by elements of the government of Malta to re-establish the SMOM in Valletta may be well-intentioned, but a tragic error is being committed. You must not be a party to the falsification of history. Our Priory in Malta will provide an accurate, 20-page history of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem - Knights Hospitaller to anyone who wants to know the identity of the true Order Bro John Grady Hereditary Knight Commander of Justice Grand Cross Prince Grand Master of the Sovereign Order
Printed in "The Independent", Malta April 2001

Created 27th April 2002
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