What characterises the Sovereign Order of Malta and its relief organisations? How extensive is the aid it provides worldwide? What role does the Order’s Diplomatic Service play in this, and what is the significance of its status as a sovereign entity under international law?
All these questions are addressed in this video, which not only presents facts and figures and moving images from crisis regions, but also explains the foundation of our work: the moral obligation of Christian charity.
The Eurovision Song Contest is the world’s most watched music event. As Austria won the contest in 2025, the event took place in Vienna this year, from 19 to 23 May 2026. During the preliminary rounds and the final, the City of Vienna and Lord Mayor Michael Ludwig took the opportunity to foster international contacts.
In addition to the already well-known aspects of this crime against humanity – such as sex work, labour exploitation, organ trafficking and child trafficking – H.E. Ambassador Sebastian Prince of Schoenaich-Carolath spoke about a new form of crime against children known as ‘grooming’ or ‘sextortion’. Children or young people are lured into, and subsequently forced to create and send increasingly intimate images or videos of themselves. This is followed by threats to publish the material or forward it to family and friends. This child pornography is then sold worldwide. Subsequently, children and young people are blackmailed (e.g. through demands for money or sexual abuse) to produce ever more images and videos.
At the start of the new year, deserving benefactors were invited to the fore and awarded the Order of Merit ‘Pro Merito Melitensi’ by H.E. Ambassador Sebastian Prince von Schoenaich-Carolath.
