Rome. Magistral Palace. H.M.E.H. the Prince and Grand Master, Fra' Andrew Bertie, greets the doyen of the Diplomatic Corps. Front right, the Master of Ceremonies, Prince Paolo Boncompagni Ludovisi, left, the Ambassador of San Marino, Count Oscar Pasquini.

His Most Eminent Highness, the Prince and Grand Master, Fra' Andrew Bertie, gave an ardent invitation to re-establish peace during the solemn audience he granted on 10th January for the traditional New Year's greetings to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Sovereign Order. In the presence of over sixty ambassadors and representatives, the Prince and Grand Master, recalling the Order's new position acquired with its recent admission as Permanent Observer to the United Nations, deplored the destruction inflicted by wars and civil conflicts such as those in Bosnia and Somalia, Rwanda, Algeria and Chechenia, stressing that only the responsible union of all moral forces can end the human suffering caused by these disasters. The Grand Master added that the Order of Malta, in its dedication on principle to the values of fraternity and solidarity, will support such forces wherever they endeavour to prevail. They have already done so in South Africa, which at last has a multiracial democracy, in Northern Ireland, where the two conflicting communities seem to have found an understanding and in the Middle East, despite the fact that the agreements between Israel and the Palestinians have already provoked further extremist violence.

Rome. Magistral Palace. The doyen of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Order, the Ambassador of the Ivory Coast, Joseph Amichia, giving the inaugural address to H.M.E.H. the Prince and Grand Master, Fra' Andrew Bertie, and the High Officers of the Order. From right: the Receiver of the Common Treasure, Count Carlo Marullo di Condojanni, the Grand Chancellor, Amb. Baron Felice Catalano di Melilli, the Grand Commander, Ven. Bailiff Fra' Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein, and the Hospitaller, Baron Albrecht von Boeselager.

The hope now is that the union of moral forces will manage to prevail wherever hatred and wars are continuing to violate human dignity and rights. It is this dignity, and these rights, concluded the Grand Master, that the Order of Malta all over the world will always defend in a spirit of absolute independence, and impartiality, as in its tradition.

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