Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/771708
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 JANUARY 2017 News BirdLife Malta calls on hunters to 'join forces' to protect birds BIRDLIFE Malta has called on the hunters' federation to join forces to protect birds and to "put the past behind them". Referring to the 12 mute swans currently sheltering in Marsal- forn Valley, BirdLife Malta said that the birds' visit has shown that the majority of the Maltese and Gozitans appreciate nature and want to enjoy it without harming it, including those who normally hunt. "This can only bode well for the common good of the coun- try. Whilst it is only natural that people want to feed the swans, BirdLife Malta also wanted to highlight the risks that this imposes and that white bread should be avoided as much as possible," BirdLife Malta said. On Saturday, BirdLife Malta said that public access to the swans had been restricted in or- der to protect the birds' health, while warning the public against feeding them bread as this can prove very dangerous. On Monday, St Hubert Hunt- ers criticised BirdLife Malta, calling their actions "extremist alarmism and protectionism," while making reference to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) which states: "Many people like feeding bread to swans and while this is un- likely to do them any real harm in the long term, it is no substi- tute for the proper diet that the birds themselves will seek out." St Hubert Hunters said that this statement was a far cry from BirdLife Malta's "publicity stunt given the full support of the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU)." "Malta's swans need a police escort and their temporary roost made inaccessible to anyone wanting to enjoy them closely. It is commonplace for swans to interact and be fed by the pub- lic yet, though to the Maltese public this is a rarity, it has now even been officially banned," the hunters said. "In the short term, anyone feeding bread to these birds or any other suitable food is defi- nitely the only reason for their remaining here until BirdLife Malta realised their obligation of doing something for Malta's birds. Had this not been the case they would have definitely died of starvation," they added. In their statement today, Bird- Life Malta said that a protocol of feeding has been established for the swans, with the help of vet- erinarians from WBRU. "Even- tually the feeding quantities will start being reduced in order to stimulate the birds to seek other feeding quarters and possibly continue with their migration. This intervention is only needed because our islands do not offer the ideal habitat for such birds," BirdLife said. The eNGO also rebutted the hunters' claims about their "be- lated involvement four days after the birds' appearance in Gozo", saying that it was on site on the first day the birds landed. BirdLife Malta said on Saturday that public access to the swans had been restricted in order to protect the birds' health Pope warned Knights of Malta not to sack Grand Chancellor MATTHEW VELLA LETTERS seen by English Catholic news weekly The Tablet have re- vealed that Pope Francis specifically requested the Knights of Malta that no one be dismissed in a dispute that saw its third-in-command, Al- brecht von Boeselager, thrown out as Grand Chancellor and then sus- pended from the Order. Boeselager was replaced by Mal- tese knight John Critien, who now represents the Sovereign Military Order as its foreign and home affairs minister. Boeselager was sacked on 6 De- cember by the Knights' Grand Master, Matthew Festing, in the presence of the Order's patron and prominent conservative critic of Pope Francis, Cardinal Burke. The reasons for Boeselager's dis- missal primarily date back to when he was Grand Hospitaller from 1989 to 2014 and in charge of Malteser International, the Knights' large humanitarian aid agency located in 24 countries. During his tenure, the organization is documented to have distributed thousands of condoms and oral contraceptives, mainly but not exclusively to help prevent pros- titutes in the Far East and Africa from contracting HIV/AIDS. The allegations were spearheaded by Michael Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute, who presented his find- ings to Burke in early November. Boeselager denies the charges. But now it has emerged that Vati- can Secretary of State Cardinal Pi- etro Parolin wrote to Festing a few days later, clarifying that the Pope did not want Boeselager sacked. As a result of the Knights' deci- sion, the Holy See decided to set up an investigation into the Knights. "I wish first of all to reiterate that these measures [the sacking and suspension of Boeselager] must not be attributed to the will of the Pope or his directives," the cardinal wrote in a letter to Festing on 21 Decem- ber. "As I expressed to you in my letter of 12 December 2016: 'as far as the use and diffusion of methods and means contrary to the moral law, His Holiness has asked for dialogue as the way to deal with, and resolve, eventual problems. But he has never spoken of sending someone away'!" The cardinal goes on to say that the action against Boeselager must be seen as "suspended" until the papal commission into the saga re- ports, which will take place at the end of this month. Cardinal Parolin also said that the Holy See could take further steps against the Order. In an extraordinary statement is- sued before Christmas, Festing told the Pope that the sacking of Boese- lager was an internal matter and the Secretariat of State had misunder- stood the situation. But in his letter to the Grand Mas- ter, Cardinal Parolin points out that the Knights are a "lay religious Or- der" which includes "service to the faith and to the Holy Father" and therefore the Holy See does have au- thority to act in this case. Critien writes to papal commission On 3 January, the new Grand Chancellor, Fra' John Critien told the Knights that the Order "cannot collaborate" with the papal com- mission, not only because of its "ju- ridical irrelevance" with respect to the Order's legal system, but "above all" in order to "protect its sovereign prerogatives against initiatives in form objectively aimed at question- ing or limiting its sovereign charac- ter." He stressed that lack of collabo- ration with the commission was purely for "juridical motivations" and is "not and can in no way be considered lack of respect towards the Commission itself nor towards the Secretariat of State of the Holy See." On 4 January, Archbishop Silvano Tomas – one of the members of the papal commission – replied to the letter, which he said "makes some statements whose inaccuracy cre- ates misunderstandings" and "di- rectly contradicts the wishes of the Holy Father." According to the archbishop, the issue with respect to Boeselager's dismissal "is not the sovereignty of the Order, but the reasonable claim of questionable procedures and lack of proven valid cause for the action taken." Also, he said, "there has never been the request for the resignation or dismissal of anyone, on the part of the Holy See and especially of the Holy Father." "Regarding what Your Excellency calls the juridical irrelevance of the Commission, the arguments used to replace the Grand Chancellor prompted its establishment by the Holy Father since the perceived irregularity of the procedure has deeply divided the Order," Arch- bishop Tomasi stated. The eleventh-century Knights are Catholicism's oldest military Order, running charitable initiatives across the globe – they are also treated as a sovereign entity with diplomatic relations with countries across the world. Festing, known by the title of "His Most Eminent Highness", is a quasi-head of state and treated as an honorary cardinal. The row has sparked an internal crisis, with Boeselager insisting that his sacking and subsequent suspen- sion from the Order was uncon- stitutional, and he is threatening to use the Order's legal system to prove his point. He said that condoms had been distributed by three projects in My- anmar without the Order's knowl- edge. "When this was discovered in the course of routine project audit- ing, two of these projects were im- mediately ended," he wrote. "An im- mediate closure of the third project would have led to the abrupt end of all basic medical services in an ex- tremely poor region of Myanmar, so this dilemma was submitted to an ethics committee [of the Or- der]. Subsequently the project was closed, following a statement by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." Pope Francis told Matthew Festing not to sack Boeselager before a papal commission investigates the allegations