-Caveat Lector-
from Conscience, Vol.XV, No 1-Spring 1994
published by
Catholics for a Free Choice
1436 U Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20009-3997
202-986-6093
$3.50 an issue
--------
Knights of Malta of St. John of Jerusalem Inc.
Full name: Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem
of Rhodes and of Malta
American Association, 1011 First Avenue, New York Archdiocese, New York,
NY10022
Tel: 212-308-3813
Federal Association of U.S.A., 1730 M Street, NW, Suite 301, Wnshington, DC
20036
Tel: 202-331-2494 Fax: 202-331-1149
Western Association of U.S.A., 465 California Street. Suite 812, San
Francisco, CA 94104
Tel: 415-788-4550
World Headquarters, Via Condotti, 68, Palazzo Malta, 00187 Rome
Membership estimates for theKnights of Malta vary
between10,000 and 13,000 worldwide, and
between1,500 and 2,500 in the United States (47)
Members of the Western Association are required to
donate at least $3,000 per year to the order's charities.(48)
The economic power of the Knights of
Malta rests on the vast wealth of its mem-
bers; their financial statements had not
yet been obtained when this report went
to press.
POLICIES AND ACTIVITIES(49)
The most regal of Catholic lay socie-
ties, the Knights of Malta was founded in
the11th century to provide medical aid to
Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. The
society became a military order in the12th
century and was a military force in the
Mediterranean, headguartered in Malta
from the 15th century until Napoleon
won control of the island in1789. It re-
organized under papal protection in the
1800s, and gradually evolved into an
aristocratic fraternal organization dedi-
cated to helping the sk and wounded.
The Knights of Malta says that its charit-
able work, which has continued to the
present day, now includes operating or
supporting 200 hospitals and clinics in90
countries.(50)
Ecclesiastically, the Knights of Malta is
a lay religious order whose elected head,
the Grand Master, must be approved by
the pope and enjoys the rank of cardinal.
Politically, it remains a sovereign entity
whose "ambassadors" enjoy full diplo-
matic status in dozens of countries
aroundthe world.
As a charitable non-governmental
organization with diplomatic immunity
in many countries (though not the United
States), the Knights of Malta enjoys a free-
dom of operation unique among interna-
tional service organizations. The unique
status of the organization makes it an at-
tractive foreign aid partner. An August
1993 US Agency for International Devel-
opment study of emergency aid needs in
strife-torn Zaire refers to the Knights of
Malta's Zaire Embassy as "a valuable asset
yet to be tapped to its fullest(' It notes that
the Knights' ambassador "has an exten-
sive network of contacts on all political
fronts" coupled with the ability to "obtain
diplomatic treatment" for emergency
relief supplies.(51)
As a sovereign entity controlled by a
handful of wealthy aristocrats and busi-
ness people, the Knights of Malta also
can-and often does-become a potent
instrument for covertly achieving political
and quasi-military goals which its mem-
bers could not hope to attain through
democratic methods.
The first of three US branches was
established in the1920s by conservative
Catholic business leaders, including
Joseph P. Grace,Joseph Kennedy,and US
Steel Chairman John Farrell. Cardinal
Francis Spellman, who was involved
from the start and adopted the title of
"Grand Protector," established an endur-
ing link between US Knights and the
New York Archdiocese.
Before and during World War II, some
European members of the Knights of
Malta collaborated with Nazism in Ger-
many, fascism in Italy, or Franco's Falan-
gist movement in Spain. After the war,
branches for the Knights of Malta in the
United States, Latin America, Italy, and
Germany collaborated with the Office of
Strategic Services and its successor, the
Central Intelligence Agency, in an elabo-
rate scheme to smuggle Nazis, fascists,
and collaborators out of Europe. This
operation set the pattem for subsequent
Knights of Malta-CIA collaboration in
covert operations to defeat communist
politicians in Italy and support the
Nicaraguan contras in Central America.(52)
The political and the humanitarian
sides of the Knights of Malta were both
much in evidence during the Reagan-
Bush years, after a dynamic leader, J. Peter
Grace, reinvigorated the group, working
closely at times with CIA director and
fellow Knight William Casey.
In1982, Grace and another prominent
Knight, former Treasury Secretary Wil-
liam Simon, worked with their friend Ray
Macauley to create a new international
charity. AmeriCares, which was to be-
come a vehicle for Knights of Malta-
backed projects around the world.
AmeriCares also won support from the
Protestant right: as of1984, ten percent of
its funding came from Pat Robertson's
Christian Broadcasting Network, accord-
ing to Macauley. Founder Macauley,
though not a Catholic, is a recipient of the
Cross of the Commander of the Order of
Malta. AmeriCares advisory committee
member General Richard G. Stilwell
served as Deputy Undersecretary of
Defense for Policy in the Reagan ad-
ministration at the time of AmeriCares's
formation, while he was in charge of Pen-
tagon intelligence activities.
AmeriCares early initiatives included
a Central America program that, accord-
ing to the Washington Post, channelled
medical aid to Nicaraguan contra backers
in Honduras and a program of counter-
insurgency "model villages" (forced reset-
tlement camps) in Guatemala. In Hon-
duras, the program's facilitators included
local Knights of Malta cochair Roberto
Alejos, who in1960 had lent his estates to
the CIA as a training ground for the Bay
of Pigs invasion of Cuba. A related
$10 million EI Salvador program was run
by a former FBI agent operating from
International Harvester's warehouses and
used the Salvadoran military to help dis-
tribute supplies.(53)
New York's late Cardinal Terrence
Cooke tried with limited success to re-
strain Grace's grand schemes; Arch-
bishop (later Cardinal) John O'Connor,
appointed to replace Cooke in1984, en-
thusiastically embraced them. State
Department documents obtained under
the Freedom of Information Act by the
National Catholic Reporter document vary-
ing levels of Knights of Malta-State
Department communication on projects,
including a plan to resettle ousted Philip-
pine President Ferdinand Marcos and aid
shipments to such hot spots as Lebanon,
Mozambique, and post-US invasion
Grenada.(54)
These often secretive, government-
linked operations appear to have primar-
ily involved the Knights of Malta's New
York and Washington offices; the limited
information available on the Knights of
Malta in Califomia suggests that it func-
tions more as a social group for members
of Catholic high society.
PEOPLE
Leadership
Bertie, Andrew Willoughby Ninian,
78th Crand Master (Rome)
Grace, T. Peter, (leader of East Coast
branch)
Prominent US Members
Anderson, George W. (former chair,
Joint Chiefs of Staff)
Bolan, Thomas (founder, New York
Conservative Party; law partner of
the late Roy Cohn)
Buckley, William (founder and editor-
at-large, National Review)
Denton, Teremiah (former US senator
from Alabama)
Dominici, Pete (US senator from New
Mexico)
Frawley, Geraldine (publisher, National
Catholic Register) {ed. note- remember Patrick Frawley}
Haig, General Alexander (former
Secretary of State)
Hickel, Walter J. (former Secretary of
the Interior)
Iacocca, Lee (former chief executive
officer, Chrysler Corporation)
Law, Cardinal Bemard (archbishop of
Boston)
Lehrman, Lewis (New York business
executive)
Martin, Ralph (co-founder, Word of God)
Monaghan, Thomas S. (owner,
Domino'sPizza)
Riordan, Richard (mayor of Los Angeles:
Shea, Martin E, executive vice president,
Morgan Bank (1983)
Shakespeare, Frank (former US Infor-
mation Agency Director and US
Ambassador to the Vatican)
Simon, William (former US Treasury
Secretary)
47. Lernoux. May 5, 1989, and Associated
Press, Apr. 11, 1988.
48. Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1990.
49. Where not otherwise indicated, the account
of the Knights of Malta's history is drawn
from Lee, Oct.14,1983, and Lernoux.1989.
50. Journal of the American MedicaI Association,
Feb. 20, 1991: Catholic Almannc (1993), pp.
597- 98.
51. US Agency for International Development,
Aug. 1993.
52. Lee. Oct. 14, '1983; Lernoux, 1989.
53. Washington Post. Dec. 27, 1984. See also
writings of Lee and Martin. op. cit., and Lee
and Kogan, 1986. For additional informa-
tion on AmeriCares, see also "Group-
Watch" report, undated.
54. National Catholic Reporter, Aug. 12, 1986.
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