Fra’ John Dunlap, a 66-year-old Canadian, has been elected Prince and 81st Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
He is the first professed knight from the Americas to be elected as head of the Order.
The Council Complete of State, the elective body, met in Rome in the Magistral Villa, one of the two institutional seats of the Order of Malta, and elected him by an absolute majority of votes, on the basis of a binding list of three candidates indicated by the Chapter of Professed. There were 99 voters from 18 countries including Fra’ Francis Vassallo from Malta.
Fra’ John Dunlap was sworn in for his 10-year term in the presence of Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi c.s., the Pope’s Special Delegate, in the Church of St. Mary on the Aventine.
He said he accepted this office with a profound spirit of service and with the solemn promise of a constant commitment.
A former lawyer
Born in Ottawa, Canada, on 16 April 1957, after studying in Nice University, John Dunlap graduated from the University of Ottawa and then obtained a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Western Ontario. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in Public Service by John Cabot University in Rome.
Fra’ John Dunlap is a member of the New York State Bar and the Ontario Bar Association in Canada. In 1986, he joined the New York legal firm Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller in New York City, becoming a partner in 1993. He specializes in corporate and immigration law. An internationally respected lawyer, since 1997 he has been legal adviser to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations.
Volunteer work among Aids patients
Dunlap approached the Order of Malta and found his religious vocation in the mid-1980s during his volunteer work with patients suffering from Aids and other diseases at the Cardinal Cooke Medical Center in Harlem (New York). He has volunteered in that hospital every week for the past 30 years.
Admitted to the Order of Malta in 1996, he took his solemn vows as a Professed Knight in 2008. For over a decade he served the Order of Malta as Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Names and Emblems and Representative to the Alliance of the Orders of St John.
In 2009 Fra’ John Dunlap was elected for a five-year term as a member of the Sovereign Council. He was re-elected for another five-year term by the Chapter General in 2014 and then in 2019. He was Lieutenant of the Grand Master since June 2022, following the death of Fra’ Marco Luzzago.
The role of the Grand Master
The Grand Master is the head of the Order and is entitled to sovereign prerogatives and honours as well as the title of Most Eminent Highness. He must devote himself fully to the growth of the Order’s works and serve as an example of authentic Christian life for all member.
The states with which the Order of Malta has diplomatic relations recognise the Grand Master with the prerogatives, immunities and honours reserved for Heads of State.
The Grand Master resides at the Order of Malta’s government seat, the Magistral Palace in Rome.