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, Pope Francis said that Archbishop 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.
