Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, the special delegate of Pope Francis to the Order of Malta, has written to the order’s regional leadership stressing that a revised constitution for the order is only “provisional,” and could be changed. 

Tomasi also complained that the confidential draft had been leaked, and apparently circulated to senior figures in the order without his permission.

Details of a draft constitution drawn up by the Vatican were first reported by The Pillar on Jan. 14. Among the reforms it would make to the order, the new constitution would make it an explicit “subject” of the Holy See, despite its sovereign status in international law.