The Knights of Malta need a new grand master after Matthew Festing was forced to resign. He had ousted a senior official he accused of distributing condoms during charity work Gabriel Bouys/Associated PressFresh from forcing the British head of the Knights of Malta to resign in a row over condoms, Pope Francis is now backing plans to scrap the chivalric order’s 1,000 year old rule on picking blue-blooded grand masters. That looks set to change as Francis backs a move to open the leadership to commoners, in keeping with his unstuffy style. “The pope has a point. We are probably down to less than ten eligible candidates…

Source: The Times April 27, 2017 00:45 UTC