New York lawyer John Dunlap is new leader of secretive Catholic order, the Knights of Malta

June 15, 2022

" For the first time in its thousand-year history, the Knights of Malta has a New Yorker heading the secretive Catholic charitable mission as it grapples with internal “crisis.”

John Dunlap, 65, a Canadian-born Manhattan attorney, was appointed Lieutenant to the Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, in an “unusual intervention” by Pope Francis Monday.

The appointment follows the June 7 death of Dunlap’s predecessor, Marco Luzzago, who only headed the order for the last 18 months after passing away from a sudden illness.

Dunlap, who will be based in Rome, is the first non-European to hold the prestigious, powerful role of the religious order which runs hospitals and medical services in 122 countries — employing more than 80,000 volunteers and 42,000 medical staff who work with refugees and victims of national disasters and armed conflict.

“The papal appointment is likely to bring a measure of stability at the head of the order, which has had four leaders since 2017,” wrote The Pillar, a US-based Catholic news service."

Sauce/more: https://nypost.com/2022/06/15/new-york-lawyer-john-dunlap-named-leader-of-knights-of-malta/