Excellencies, friends who have come here from all over the world, it is an honour for me to bring you the greetings of His Most Eminent Highness the Prince and Grand Master, who has always followed the affairs of the Order’s communications with great interest. The theme of today’s meeting is the 900th anniversary of the Order’s Institution. We could say a jubilee of the Order, at the same time marking a point of arrival and departure towards the new millennium. The occasion offered me by this meeting is certainly also useful for providing some information on what the Order has achieved during these last years. The Order has lived in Rome during its long exile and it is in Rome that it has its headquarters in the building on Via Condotti. You all know how certain moments have not been easy. You all know, during the period when its relations with the Holy See had become rather tense, how difficult it was for the Grand Master and for his Lieutenant to carry on when the Order also had economic difficulties. That period is now behind us; and the Mastership of Grand Master de Mojana brought great results. In 1960 the Order had around twenty diplomatic relations on a level of ambassadors and four or five legations. Today I have the honour and satisfaction of telling you that we now have diplomatic relations with eighty-one countries, including important ones such as Austria, Italy and Spain, Portugal and others. This growth, first fostered by Grand Master de Mojana, has continued during the Mastership of Fra’ Andrew Bertie There is no doubt that an important step has been made from the Order’s situation in the Sixties to its status in the Eighties and Nineties, with a great effort to adapt its structures not only to its new needs determined by today’s times but also to the Second Vatican Council. I have to acknowledge the merits of the Order’s members who have helped to achieve this internal and external evolution and in particular the Grand Priories and National Associations. On the international level, I would like to recall the significance of the 1988 seminar, where the need to reform the Order’s managers was realised, creating a series of working groups which would spell out the various requirements. I will not bore you with details because you are well aware of all this. I have to say, however, that the road taken at that time, desired by Grand Master de Mojana and Grand Master Bertie, has produced extraordinary results. The National Associations and Grand Priories have been able to make their voices heard in the furthermost corners of the Magistry: and that motion for the reform of the constitutional documents which so felicitously ended in January this year was prompted precisely by the Presidents of the National Associations. You are all well aware of the differing opinions, the obstacles to this evolution of the Order, but there are majorities and minorities in all communities. After a frank debate we have reached the conclusion now accepted by all, and this conclusion is the result of the Extraordinary General Chapter of 28th-30th April 1997 in which the Constitutional Charter was approved which today regulates us. What is so amazing about this is the fact that the Chancellery managed to obtain from the Vatican the approval of both constitutional documents in only nine days. What does this mean?

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