(Rivista Internazionale - December 1996: From the Strategies to the Reform - 1/4)

From the Strategies to the Reform

Carlo Marullo di Condojanni
Receiver of the Common Treasure

New York. Ambassador Count Don Carlo Marullo di Condojanni, Permanent Observer of the Order to the United Nations and Receiver of the Common Treasure, during the audience at the UN headquarters with the Secretary General of the Assembly, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Ambassador Marullo presented his credentials of the Order on 23 October.

Although the origins of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem are lost in the mists of time, the origins of its juridical existence are well defined. By 1099 it had already received recognition and privileges from the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, followed by the "Papal Bull" of Paschal II in 1120, making it independent of the religious and lay authorities in the territory in which it acted. These were the sources of the sovereign powers which the Order of St. John began to wield on Rhodes and later in Malta, establishing an authentic diplomatic service in all the Christian States; hence its defence of Christendom at a time when it was threatened by the infidels.
The Order was a sea power at that time and played an important political role in the Mediterranean theatre. When Napoleon occupied the island of Malta in 1798, which was then handed over to Great Britain in 1800, the Order moved to Messina, Catania and Ferrara before finally settling in Rome. It still claimed Maltese sovereignty and participated with its delegates of diplomatic rank in the congresses held in the early 19th century in Amiens, Paris, Aix-la-Chapelle and Verona, up to the one in Vienna.

Valletta, Malta. Second seminar on the Order's strategy programme held in 1993.

Valletta, Malta. H.M.E.H Prince and Gran Master, Fra' Andrew Bertie, with (from right) Amb. Count Don Carlo Marullo di Condojanni, Receiver of the Common Treasure, Baron Albrecht von Boeselager, Hospitaller, and Amb. Baron Felice Catalano di Melilli, Grand Chancellor, at Sant'Angelo Fort in Valletta on the occasion of the religious ceremony celebrated before the Seminar.

Diplomatic relations, especially those with Austria, then the leading Catholic power, continued despite the loss of the Maltese island, until they reached the present 72 diplomatic missions.
The diplomatic immunity and privileges which the Order now enjoys world-wide are naturally at the service of its humanitarian aims, pursued wherever hospital assistance is required and during wars or natural disaster.
Internationalist doctrine compares the Order's position to that of the Holy See, albeit on the level of abstract legal principles and not with regards to its effective political and diplomatic weight.
Hence its diplomatic recognition, the result of centuries-old relations with Catholic States. But it is interesting to see that today even non-Catholic States, such as Egypt, Morocco and Thailand, or Marxist ones such as Cuba, maintain relations with the Order on diplomatic levels.
In this long journey it is noticeable, as I like to point out, that the exercise of sovereign prerogatives has always been linked to its hospital service and military action in defence of the faith, and that these goals represent a constant in the sources of the Order's legal system, from the time of the Regula of 1145 to its present Constitutions. The revisions of the Regula are incorporated in the Code de Rohan, forming the basis of the Constitutional Charter of 1961, still in force.

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