Order of Malta

Budapest, 23 March 2018. The Sovereign Order of Malta is holding its annual international hospitallers' conference this week. This year the meeting is taking place in Budapest, hosted by the Hungarian Association of the Knights of Malta. The conference is presided by the Grand Hospitaller, HE Dominique de la Rochefoucauld-Montbel; on the part of the Hungarian Association, the host of the event is Dr. Loránd Erőss, Hospitaller of the Association.

More than 90 participants are registered, from 36 countries. HE Albrecht Von Boeselager, Grand Chancellor, HE János Esterházy, Receiver of the Common Treasure, and the Prelate of the Order Mons. Jean Laffitte, are attending. Mons. Laffitte set the tone for the conference with a reflection on the virtue of hospitality.

The focus of the conference are the reports of the national hospitallers, and the discussions related to these. The programme includes presentations on the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem and on the Europe-wide programme for the support of the Roma population. Romas are Europe's most important ethnic minority: the Order has appointed a special ambassador to coordinate programmes for their support and integration, in cooperation with national entities of the Order. Such programmes are being implemented in Hungary, Romania, Albania and Slovakia.

Malteser International and the Eastern Europe Order of Malta Relief Organisation are holding their annual general meetings at the same time as the hospitallers' conference. Malteser International is the international auxiliary body of the Order, operating worldwide in humanitarian emergencies: currently, one of its main areas of focus is the Middle East, where it is carrying out a wide variety of activities in war-torn areas. 

After the meetings, the participants are invited by the Hospitaller of the Hungarian Association to visit the Holy Family Church in Zugliget, where the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order was born in 1989. The founder of the Charity Service, Father Imre Kozma, will talk about the events of summer 1989, which were key to the regime change in Hungary and were the origin of the professional, insitutional charitable work of the Order in Hungary. Following this, the vice-president of the Charity Service, Lajos Győri-Dani, will host the participants in the neighbouring national headquarters of the Charity Service, where he and Dr. Loránd Erőss will present the current nationwide work of the Service.

The closing event of the conference will be the Palm Sunday Mass in the Coronation Church (Matthias Church) in Buda Castle.

(Photos: Kovács Bence)