Sua Altezza Reale il Duca di Parma e Piacenza ricevuto dal Gran Maestro.
“.. desidero evidenziare il mio personale affetto per Vostra Altezza Eminentissima e sostenerlo per l’alta responsabilità che il Sovrano Ordine svolge attraverso la sua missione di testimonianza della fede e di aiuto ai poveri, riassunta nell’immemorabile motto Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum. I legami che uniscono la mia Famiglia all’Ordine sono molto antichi. Il primo dei miei antenati fu ammesso nel 1378. Da quei 646 anni partecipiamo a sostenere questa duplice missione, all’inizio con la spada, poi con la protezione e oggi con il nostro sostegno e la preghiera, sia in Francia che in Spagna, così come in Parma e Olanda…” (di seguito il testo completo).
Con queste parole Sua Altezza Reale il Principe Carlo Saverio di Borbone, Duca di Parma e Piacenza, Capo della Real Casa di Borbone Parma, Principe Reale d’Olanda, Balì Gran Croce di Onore e Devozione del S.M. Ordine di Malta, ha aperto il Suo indirizzo di saluto a Sua Altezza Eminentissima il Principe Gran Maestro dell’Ordine, Frà Jhon T. Dunlap, nel corso della visita che si è tenuta il 15 aprile scorso al palazzo di Malta, a Roma, in via dei Condotti. Il Principe Carlo Saverio era accompagnato dal fratello S.A.R. il Principe Giacomo, conte di Bardi, Ambasciatore dei Paesi Bassi, oltre che da una rappresentanza olandese, spagnola e parmense. Il Principe Carlo Saverio, nel Suo saluto, ha voluto sottolineare che “…solo percependo gli altri come fratelli saremo in grado di collaborare fraternamente per migliorare il nostro pianeta, le nostre società e l’ordine internazionale, proteggendoli sia dal liberalismo estremo che dal populismo semplificatore”.
All’incontro erano presenti tutte le Alte Cariche dell’Ordine: il Gran Commendatore S.E. Frà Emmanuel Rousseau, il Gran Cancelliere S.E. Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo, il Grande Ospedaliere S.E. Frà Alessandro de Franciscis, il Ricevitore del Comun Tesoro, S.E. Fabrizio Colonna, oltre al Prelato dell’Ordine, Rev. Mons. Luis Manuel Cuña Ramos, a S.E. l’Ambasciatore Antonio Zanardi Landi e al Delegato del S.M. Ordine di Malta per l’Emilia Occidentale Paolo Conforti.
Nell’occasione S.A.R. il Duca di Parma e Piacenza ha consegnato a S.A.E.ma il Gran Maestro il collare del Sacro Angelico Imperiale Ordine Costantiniano di San Giorgio, storicamente riservato ai Capi di Stato e di Case Reali, ricevendo la Gran Croce dell’Ordine al Merito Melitense, classe speciale.
L’incontro si è concluso con una colazione presso le sale del Palazzo Magistrale. La mattina seguente le LL.AA.RR. il Principi Carlo Saverio e Giacomo di Borbone Parma sono stati ricevuti in Vaticano dal Segretario di Stato della Santa Sede Sua Eminenza Rev.ma il Card. Pietro Parolin, intrattenendosi in colloquio privato per 47 minuti.
SPEECH OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE
CARLOS BOURBON PARMA, DUKE OF PARMA AND PIACENZA
ROMA, PALAZZO MALTA, 15 APRIL 2024
Your Eminent Highness, Your Excellencies,
Your Most Reverent, Illustrious Hight Officers, Dear all in Christ,
I want my first words to be of gratitude to His Eminent Higness for his fraternal welcome in the Magistral Palace, from which he serves in the high mission that has been entrusted to him of governing this Sovereign Order made up of devotees, priests, laymen, laywomen, workers and volunteers, who with the nuns form the great Family of Saint John.
It is with joy and excitement that I make this official visit. With it I want to highlight my personal affection for Your Eminent Higness and support him for the high responsibility that the Sovereign Order carries out through its mission of witnessing to the faith and helping the poor, summarized in the immemorial motto of Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum.
The links that unite my Family with the Order are very old. The first of my ancestors was admitted in 1378. Since those 646 years we have participated in supporting this double mission, in its beginnings through the sword, then with protection and today with our support and prayer, both in France and Spain as well as in Parma and the Netherlands. The Church, semper reformanda, has adopted different forms throughout history to be more effective in the mission that Jesus Christ gave it to announce the Gospel and anticipate the Kingdom of God. Throughout all of them it has been the mission of the Holy Father to confirm us in the Faith.
Today we are presented with very diverse challenges. Secularization in the West puts us at risk of the Church occupying a residual role in society. In Asia, religious freedom is not guaranteed in all countries. And in Africa we run the risk of confronting other religions. There are currently 34 war conflicts in the world, including the one in Ukraine, which brings us back to the reality of war in the longest horizon of peace in the history of Europe. And in the Middle East we see with concern the military escalation and the existence of victims and hostages.
Finally, we are experiencing a change of era in which artificial intelligence systems seem both an opportunity to improve quality and to control us like never before and even supplant human life itself, already threatened by climate change that can make our planet uninhabitable.
None of this is new in the history of the Church. Today, more than ever, Caritas Christi urges nos. Our weapons are Faith and Charity, since we know that victory will ultimately be for the Civilization of Love, in the words of Saint Augustine, whose rule the Sovereign Order adopted from its beginnings. And if we have this certainty it is because Our Lord, when appearing to his disciples at Easter, assured us of his presence among us until the end of time.
To face these challenges, our admired Pope Francis has given us two precious instruments, such as his encyclicals Laudato sì and Fratelli Tutti. In the first, he shows that caring for the common home is an effective instrument
to fight against social injustice. I was recently able to visit the Royal Abbey of Poblet where the monks have energetically transformed their monastery to have zero impact on the environment. In the second, he tells us that only by perceiving others as brothers will we be able to collaborate fraternally to improve our planet, our societies and the international order, protecting them from both extreme liberalism and simplifying populism.
Already in the times in Valletta the natural exploitation of the island of Malta was ordered in an efficient and sustainable way. And long before, in Jerusalem, people were welcomed as brothers, without regard to their origin. The Pope, on 3 September 2022, indicated the path to carry out the evangelizing, humanitarian and diplomatic mission of the Sovereign Order, after a process in which each member of my Family and my Orders has supported through prayer.
Our ancient jurisdictional lordships are today spiritual services, because true nobility is born from the spirit and being a lord today means being a servant, as Our Lord told us: “Whoever wants to be first must be last, and whoever wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all”. That is why, in its mission, the Sovereign Order speaks of “Our Lords” the needy.
I must admit that I have been impressed by the trips of His Eminent Highness The Prince and Grand Master, but also of the vocational work of the His Excellency The Grand Commander. The reorientation of the diplomatic service of His Excellency The Grand Chancellor is also impressive, as are the numerous measures promoted by His Excellency The Grand Hospitaller, including the preparation for refugees in Gaza, and the successful measures of His Excellency The Receiver of the Common Treasury to guarantee the sustainability of the works.
Let me finish by highlighting that nothing ennobles people more than Imitatio Christi. Nobility is not something of the past, but the selfless attitude of Christians to love God and help their neighbors, leading a life of spiritual grace and ecclesial communion. Our sovereignty is not something of the past nor is our nobility something symbolic. We create our nobility when, or update that of our ancestors, when we selflessly serve the Church defending those in need, our Lord, in the construction of his Kingdom, which is of faith, hope and charity.
Ancient nobility or new nobility, everything is nobility: let us aspire to serve God, Our Lord, as much as possible, and he will shower us with his divine graces. Noblesse oblige.
GALLERIA FOTOGRAFICA
