On the occasion of his official visit to the United Nations in Vienna for the 30th anniversary of the Sovereign Order of Malta’s status as a Permanent Observer, Grand Chancellor Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo was received by the Austrian Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, Alexander Schallenberg. The Ambassador of the Order to the Republic of Austria, H.E. Sebastian Prince von Schoenaich-Carolath, accompanied the meeting with the Head of the Permanent Observer Mission to the UN in Vienna, H.E. Ambassador Prof. Günther Granser, who had organised the Grand Chancellor’s entire visit to Vienna. The meeting with the Austrian Foreign Minister underlined the importance of diplomatic relations, which are among the longest in the Order’s history, with the Grand Priory of Austria dating back to the 12th century.

Grand Chancellor Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo thanked Minister Schallenberg for the reception and for the support the Austrian government gives to the social and humanitarian activities of the Grand Priory of Austria and its relief organisations working with children, refugees, the elderly, the disabled and marginalised groups. Ways of supporting the Order’s activities, e.g. in the Middle East, were discussed, in which the Austrian Development Agency could play a role. The Sovereign Order of Malta runs the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem, the largest and most modern maternity hospital in the West Bank, where over 350 children are born every month and for which the already precarious humanitarian conditions deteriorated further last year. The humanitarian mission organised by the Order together with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Malteser International was also discussed, which has so far delivered 140 tonnes of relief supplies to Gaza.

Minister Schallenberg expressed his appreciation of and support for the Order’s activities and his willingness to cooperate in the humanitarian field in the future.

Fotocredits: BMEIA – Michael Gruber