Pope Francis has named a top Vatican archbishop as his special delegate to the troubled Knights of Malta and given him "all necessary powers" to help the sovereign religious order reform its constitutions and elect a new leader.
Archbishop Angelo Becciu is the No. 3 official in the Vatican's secretariat of state.
In a letter today, Francis said Becciu would act as his "exclusive spokesman" with the order, confirming the marginalisation of Cardinal Raymond Burke, the conservative American and a critic of Francis who technically is the papal envoy to the order.
Burke was instrumental in the government crisis that has convulsed the Knights over the past three months, resulting in the resignation of the order's grand master after he did public battle with Francis over a condom scandal and lost.
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