News & Press Notes

Geneva, 1 August 2011. Constantinian Order was granted Consultative Status to United Nations, in the General session of July 2011 in Geneva, adopted the recommendation of the Committee for non-governmental organizations based in New York to accept the special request made by the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George to be granted the consultative status starting August 1, 2011. The initiative of the Constantinian Knights, strongly supported by the Grand Master, Prince Charles of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Castro, Head of the Royal House by the same name, has been greatly appreciated by the United Nations for the numerous activities undertaken by the Order in favour of needy people, especially those coming from areas outside Europe, not only in Italy but also in various African and Asian Countries as a result of natural disasters and wars. Particular attention was given to donations made by Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Castro, the inspiring force behind the humanitarian action of the Order, to hospitals and care institutions such as the hospital “Bambin Gesù” in Rome, the Civil Hospital in Nice, “Princess Grace Hospital” in the Principality of Monaco, and projects now being finalized for the construction of a molecular biology laboratory in the American Hospital of Paris and a pioneering initiative at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic in Rome. Particularly appreciated was the construction of the Hospital of the Catholic Diocese of Hoima in Uganda, thanks to the important contributions of the Costantinian Delegations of Sicily and Switzerland. Apart from the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which has a special international status, the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George is the only Italian Order of Chivalry to be awarded this special recognition by the United Nations which authorizes it to entertain relations followed also by the Secretary General of the United Nations, the General Assembly and all other U.N. Agencies and Institutions in the world, in addition of course, to relations with 193 Member States of this primary International Organization. As known, there are around one hundred Orders of Chivalry currently present in Italy. Only six of them are considered legitimate by the Italian State for the purposes of authorizing the exhibiting of their insignia decorations on the territory of the Republic. The first, back in 1963, was indeed the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, whose decorations are permitted for the Head of the Royal House of Naples. The Constantinian Knights whom He nominates are considered, now also by the UN system which approved the statutes and the history of the Order, the inheritors of the ancient fifty Knights appointed by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who, since the early decades of 300 A.C., were the keepers the pennon in the shape of a cross with the monogram of Christ (“Labarum”), which the King always used to carry on his travels, by raising it on battlefields to protect his soldiers and as admonishment to his opponents. The special status granted by the U.N. authorizes the Constantinian Order to appoint its official representatives to the U.N. institutions to the Glass Palaces in New York, Geneva and Vienna, and to grant them the power of access to the centers of project developments with written and oral interventions, acquisition and distribution of documents, the use of any conference or meeting rooms, etc. The Constantinian Order will have to draw up its own report on the activities undertaken, which must be presented no later than January 1, 2015, that is at the end of the renewable four year term, 2011-2014. The Prince and Grand Master of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order has appointed Knight John Leopold Fiorilla di Santa Croce, a local resident, Head of the Constantinian Delegation in New York and of the Institutions and Special Agencies thereby represented , thus approving the choice of the Delegation Office at 555 Park Avenue. H.E. Ambassador Giuseppe Balboni Acqua, Secretary General of the Order, was appointed Deputy Head of the Delegation, who in turn is in charge of relations with the institutions of the UN in Geneva, where he served for more than three years as Ambassador of Italy and Head of the Italian Delegation to the Conference of Disarmament. Concurrently Barrister Franco Ciufo, Knight of Grand Cross, Deputy Delegate for the Lazio region, was also appointed member of the Constantinian Delegation to the UN. Three subsequent members of the Constantinian Representation will be appointed at a later date.