(International review - December 1994: Audience to the
Diplomatic Corps
- 1/1)
In the World
Audience to the
Diplomatic Corps
«In the year just ended», H.M.E.H.
the Prince and Grand Master
addressed the Diplomatic Corps
convened in the Magistral Palace
in Rome on 17 January for the
traditional New Year's greetings,
«theforces of evil, despite the
efforts of men of goodwill, have
not been halted. Unbridled
individualism, aggravated
nationalism ethnic and religious
intolerance, scourges of our time,
have condemned humans to violence, misery and marginalisation.» «Certainly», he pointed out, «international diplomacy has sought solutions with the peacemaking agreements in South Africa, Palestine and Northern Ireland, but these have sometimes been jeopardized by the extremisty of the parties concerned. «Without speaking», he added, «of the social and ethnic conflicts whose victims are not assisted by national or international agencies, even only to defend their condition as human beings: like the unfortunate populations of Bosnia, whose suffering is increased by deliberate political actions of power and genocide.»
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Rome, Magistral Palace. The close ties of co-operation between Italy and the Sovereign Order, referred to by the Prince and Grand Master during the audience, were the subject of the talks between the President of the Italian Republic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, and the Order's high officers, during the former's visit to the Grand Master. In the photo (left), President Scalfaro with the Receiver of the Common Treasure, Count Carlo Marullo di Condojanni. (Right picture) H.M.E.H. the Prince and Grand Master replying to the greetings of Joseph Amichia, Ambassador of the Ivory Coast, doyen of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Order. |
«Despite all this», the Grand Master continued, «divided between bitterness and hope, we are not despairing. The Order of Malta continues to perform its humanitarian action everywhere without any partisan spirit and based on solidarity, the only remedy which is not an abstract principle and can be tangibly applied to the needs and rights of human beings.» «It is in this sphere and to serve this principle», stressed Fra' Andrew Bertie, «that the Sovereign Order has continued to establish new diplomatic relations - with Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania and the Russian Federation - and to reinforce them in those countries where they already existed, with the Grand Master's visits to Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Belgium, Spain and Portugal; without forgetting the intensification of relations with Italy, especially in the Civil Defence sphere.»
«These pledges are sustained», the Grand Master concluded, «by the generous contribution of 10,500 Knights of Malta, called on to work out new strategies for the third Christian millennium, through the central government and their own representative bodies. This is how the Sovereign Order will address the future, updating its institutions, developing its spirituality and modernising all its operative structures; in defence as always of the faith and in the service of all those who suffer.»
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